Barbara Doulyeraki, who runs Agia Marina Donkey Rescue in Crete, said she gets about two or three calls a week from villagers selling or giving away donkeys, up from about one call a month in years past.
Ten years ago, apart from a few grazing goats and donkeys, no one paid much attention to the western slope of the island, where nine of the project's 12 finished houses dot the landscape.