Elisabeth Svendsen

Elisabeth Doreen Svendsen MBE (23 January 1930 – 11 May 2011) was a British animal welfare advocate and former hotelier.

[1][2] She also founded a related charity, the Elisabeth Svendsen Trust for Children and Donkeys, located in Ivybridge, during the 1970s.

[2] She then married Niels Svendsen and had four children – Clive, Lise, Sarah and Paul.

[2] Soon afterwards, Svendsen noticed seven neglected donkeys housed in a small livestock pen in a market in Exeter.

[2] She was contacted in June 1974 by a lawyer for a late elderly woman named Violet Philpin, who had bequeathed Svendsen 204 donkeys.

[2] The sanctuary, which now has a veterinary hospital and overnight accommodations, employs approximately 500 people worldwide, including sixty in the United Kingdom who investigate reports of abused donkeys.

[5] Svendsen said at the time, "It's a real honour to have Prince William with us and I can't think of a better name for him, thus to mark the occasion of the royal wedding.