Dr. Faith Burden

Beasts of Burden.

And I think it's called nominative determinism.

And of course, donkeys are really linked with religion as well.

So my first name, Faith, is somewhat linked too.

But I just think it was destined to be from being that seven-year-old that fell in love with some long ears and

you know, a place, a wonder.

And yeah, I could never change my name.

No, no, never, never.

But what a wonderful place to find yourself.

I'm a scientist by training.

I've always been interested in the natural world and how it all works.

So the science part of what I do is really important.

And certainly that was always my main aim was to help people to understand donkeys and what they need from us.

I was a microbiologist and a virologist.

So originally, my PhD was looking at infectious diseases that were transferred between people and animals.

But I got a little bit tired of lab work.

White coats and centrifuges became a bit tiresome.

So I decided to take some time out and go and see what donkeys had to offer.

And a lot of my early work with the Donkey Sanctuary was looking at infectious diseases, parasitology, nutrition.

So it drew on much of my background, but then really the sort of behavior and welfare science overtook.