Video: Ann Widdecombe on her trip to Mauritania
![Anne Widdecombe](https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/webimg/legacy_oak_103005596.jpg?crop=3:2,smart&width=640&quality=65&enable=upscale)
![Anne Widdecombe](/img/placeholder.png)
Ann has worked with SPANA in countries such as Mauritania and Egypt and has witnessed first-hand the horrific conditions these donkeys, horses and other working animals face on a daily basis.
SPANA (the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad) operates veterinary centres and mobile clinics in places such as the capital of Mauritania, Nouakchott. Incredibly, despite its population of over one million people, the city has no water distribution system.
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Hide AdInstead, Nouakchott’s residents rely on 70,000 working donkeys, which have to collect and deliver water from a limited number of water points. Generally, they’ll transport up to 400 litres of water at a time to and from the city throughout the entire day. Essentially, day-to-day life in the capital depends on this vast workforce of animals.
![Anne Widdecombe](https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/webimg/legacy_oak_103005596.jpg?crop=3:2,smart&width=640&quality=65)
![Anne Widdecombe](/img/placeholder.png)
Ann is a long-time supporter of international animal charity SPANA.
Ann has previously visited the charity’s work in Morocco and, in 2014, she toured the Giza Pyramids area in Cairo to see the plight of horses facing starvation amid the political unrest. Hundreds of carriage horses used for tourist excursions were suffering from severe malnutrition, as visitor numbers to Egypt plummeted.