Elisabeth Svendsen

Who was Elisabeth Svendsen?

Elisabeth Doreen Svendsen MBE was a British animal welfare advocate and former hotelier. Svendsen founded The Donkey Sanctuary, an animal sanctuary headquartered in Sidmouth, England, in 1969 to help abused or homeless donkeys. She also founded a related charity, the Elisabeth Svendsen Trust for Children and Donkeys, located in Ivybridge, during the 1970s.

Svendsen was born Elisabeth Doreen Knowles in Yorkshire on 23 January 1930. She spent her early career as a teacher and secretary. She then married Niels Svendson and had four children - Clive, Lise, Sarah and Paul. Together, the couple invented a dryer specifically to dry cloth baby diapers. They sold the rights to their invention to a manufacturer and used their payment to purchase a hotel in Devon in 1966. Elisabeth and Niels later divorced.

In 1969, Svendsen, a lifelong donkey enthusiast, bought her first donkey, named Naughty Face. Soon afterwards, Svendsen noticed seven neglected donkeys housed in a small livestock pen in a market in Exeter. She tried unsuccessfully to purchase the donkey in the worst condition of the group.

The experience of the neglected donkeys in Exeter led Svendsen to establish The Donkey Sanctuary in 1969. She began taking in elder and disabled donkeys. She became responsible for the care of thirty-eight donkeys by 1973, an expensive undertaking. She was contacted in June 1974 by a lawyer for a late elderly woman named Violet Philpin, who had bequeathed Svendsen 204 donkeys. Svendsen gave up her hotel to work with The Donkey Sanctuary full-time.