San Vitero (Zamora), (EFE)
There are 1,300 specimens and 220 breeding females left.
With some 1,300 specimens and 220 reproductive females, he has found a future in donkey-milk cheeses and yogurts, walks and leisure activities, and even donkey-assisted therapy to prevent his disappearance.
These new uses of the Zamoran-Leonese breed have been shown this Saturday at the San Vitero donkey fair (Zamora), an event that every year brings together the best specimens of the Zamoran-Leonese donkey, allows us to appreciate the robustness and docility of the breed and encourages sales. of copies, both free sale and auction.
A bid without the desired success
In this edition, the bid has not had the desired success, although there have been buyers, such as Javier Carbajo, who for 550 euros has taken a Zamoran Leonese stallion to Candeleda (Ávila)
Sellers like Castor Novoa have had less luck, who put “Yoli II” up for sale, in a low auction that started at 2,500 euros and stopped at 1,900 euros considering that less could not be paid for that female specimen whose bearing and genetics make it especially suitable for breeding.
At 91 years old, Castor Novoa has been there for more than thirty years, since he closed his agricultural machinery business, dedicated to raising donkeys from Zamora, Leon.
“Because of the donkeys I cured my depressions,” this veteran breeder has confessed to EFE.
Asnotherapy against stress and to help people with different abilities
In fact, “asnotherapy” for people with different disabilities is one of the new uses for the donkey from Zamora Leon that has been promoted by the national association of breeders of the Aszal breed.
It has also promoted donkey rides as a leisure and rural tourism offer and has promoted the creation of Buleza, a cooperative that markets donkey milk.
Milk for yogurts and cheeses
Beyond its use to make handmade soaps and cosmetic products, this milk, which is only given by donkeys with young, is used to make cheese and yogurt.
Gemma Cambero, a cheesemaker from Salamanca, was the first producer in Spain to make donkey cheese, which is “very soft, it is a semi-cooked paste, very pleasant and very melting, and with a very good sweet final flavor”, she told EFE, for also recognize that of all the cheeses he makes, he is the one he likes the most.
Donkey milk, due to its composition, is “the most similar to mother’s milk,” he stressed to highlight its nutritional properties.
A Segovian yogurt teacher makes them in six flavors
Raquel Arranz, a yogurt maker from Sacramenia (Segovia), has also innovated by making the first donkey milk yogurt in Spain, a drinkable product that she sells in six flavors: natural, tangerine, aleo vera, violet caramel, strawberry with orange and pineapple. with coconut.
The commercialization of milk and its empowerment as a leisure animal have made it possible to preserve in the 21st century an ass breed that began its decline in the mid-20th century with the mechanization of agriculture and whose “genetic heritage” must be preserved, according to has defended the veterinarian José Emilio Yanes.
A very robust species
This expert in the study of this breed has explained that the Zamoran Leon donkey stands out for its “great morphology”, its robustness, its large ears and large head and “above all, the hirsutism so accentuated that it has that big hair”.
These characteristics have been appreciated in the fifty copies that have gathered this Saturday at the monographic exhibition of the San Vitero breed, a fair in which the word donkey has ceased to be an insult to become a source of pride. EFE