Free Press Journal · https://www.freepressjournal.in/world/patients-find-support-through-therapy-donkeys-at-psychiatric-hospital-near-paris
At a psychiatric hospital near Paris, five donkeys saved from neglect now help patients with depression and schizophrenia find their way back.
Yahweh opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?"
Numbers 22:28
At the Ville-Évrard psychiatric hospital east of Paris, five donkeys are part of the treatment. Nono, Pitou, Oscar, Manolo, and Malraux. Patients with depression, schizophrenia, and autism groom them, walk them, and lean on them. One patient calls it animal medicine. The nurse insists it cannot replace the doctor while others but it can help people get their sense of self-worth back.
And here is the part that stays with you. The donkeys came from neglect themselves. Several were rescued from mistreatment before anyone trained them for this. The animals nobody wanted are the ones now bringing people back from the edge.
There is an old story about a donkey. A prophet named Balaam beat his for stopping on the road, not knowing it had stopped because it saw an angel he was blind to. God used the animal, the beaten and overlooked one, to reach the man who could not see.
That is the donkey's job in scripture. It carries what the clever miss. At Ville-Évrard it carries people back toward themselves, four steps at a time.