Farmer saves trapped donkey
by jarek_ielts7 on December 2, 2007
in students
During the recent drought in southern Sicily a local farmer finds his donkey inside the dried up well and saves the poor animal in a very tricky way.
Southern Sicily has not seen a drop of rain for the last nine weeks so the fields look like a desert and the parched earth is covered with the debris of dried plants.
“I was doing the everyday rounds of my field – says Sicilio Picolo, a local farmer – when suddenly I heard some quiet noise coming out from the well near my shed’’. To his incredulity he saw the dusted back of his donkey at the bottom of the well. The next thing he remembers he ran to the shed for some tools to get the animal out. “I thought the best idea to help the donkey would be to throw earth and stones with my shovel onto the bottom of the well’’. After half a day of shovelling and throwing stones, Sicilio raised the well’s bottom to the surface level and fred the imprisoned animal. “And in the end the poor donkey ran away, maybe it thought that I was going to kill him’’ , says the farmer wiping tears from his eyes.
The original skeletal story behind Jarek’s news report runs like this:
A farmer, a farmer in Italy, a farmer in Italy
a donkey, a donkey … the farmer has a donkey
water … water in a well, in a well … water in a well
no water in the well … no water … the well is dry
donkey in the well, no water … donkey in the well
farmer thinks: ‘donkey is old ’ … ‘donkey is very old’ … ‘donkey no good’
farmer thinks: ‘well is dry’ … ‘no water in well’ … ‘well is no good, well is dry’
farmer throws earth on donkey in well … farmer throws earth on donkey
donkey shakes his back … donkey shakes his back … earth falls … earth falls
farmer throws earth for three hours … donkey shakes his back for three hours
earth falls for three hours …
donkey jumps out of well … donkey jumps out of well … donkey runs away, far away.
Agostino Poggioreale, an old farmer from Sicily, was arrested and accused of violation of animal rights yesterday. The farmer’s victim, his own donkey, was apparently thrown into the well, but luckily it survived the fall. Spotted doing that, the murderer-to-be decided to drop earth into the well in order to bury the animal alive. However, the donkey, using a clever trick, elevated itself by shaking the earth off his back. After reaching the surface the scared animal ran away from the scene before the farmer tried to catch it. The whole incident was witnessed by Poggioreale’s neighbour, who informed the local animal rights activists.
A 50-year-old farmer attempted to brutally kill his dehydrated donkey. The S. region has suffered drought for the last six months. In search for water supplies, the donkey fell into the well in R. village. The frustrated owner threw the earth into the well in order to bury the animal alive. The donkey managed to raise itself to the surface level by shaking the sand off its back and, unnoticed by the farmer, escape from the trap and soon from the farm as well. The animal has not been found up till now. The farmer is alleged to have been cruel to his cattle before.
Following the drought in Southern Italy, numerous wells there have dried up. At Luciano G’s farm, a donkey fell into one of dried-up wells. The farmer came up with an idea of throwing earth into the well, hoping the donkey would be shaking the earth off its back until it could get out. And when that really happened, the donkey escaped the trap, but scared ran far away. Presumably, the animal felt that its owner was trying to rescue it in order to slaughter it later.