A four-year-old girl has issued an urgent appeal for her missing donkey to be returned home for Christmas.

Bella “adored” Winston the donkey, who is 20 years old and was stolen from a field in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, on 11 December.

She is so upset about his disappearance that she has used her letter to Santa to ask him to “bring my donkey home”.

Her mother, Amy Doran, told Sky News he was “a lovely, lovely donkey, very compassionate and very sweet”.

“So obviously when you’ve got reminders of donkeys everywhere at Christmas time, it’s not ideal,” she said.

Ms Doran said Winston’s best friend, Rudi, had been left “heartbroken” by his disappearance.

“We’re getting to a point where it’s over a week now, almost 10 days, and he’s at a point where he’s very depressed,” she added.

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“Rudi and Winston were Christmas gifts to my partner when we moved to Wales to our small holding, and it was two of the first animals we really had here on the farm.”

The donkeys are used to being handled and have a “lovely, calm temperament”, according to Ms Doran.

“Children can easily handle them, especially Winston. Winston out of the two of them actually was the most docile and the best with the children,” she said.

A £1,000 reward has been offered so the Doran family can be reunited with “priceless” Winston.

“It obviously is very coincidental that he’s been taken at Christmas time and obviously there are donkeys for nativities,” she added.

“It could be that somebody’s taken him and will rent him for nativity over the Christmas period and then will sell him afterwards, or they’ve taken him for personal use, or they’ve taken him to resell him at Christmas time because this is when donkeys sell the easiest.”

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The Christmas wish of this Carmarthenshire-based family is that their beloved Winston comes home.

“Hopefully somebody might see something and recognise him,” Ms Doran said.

A spokesperson for Dyfed-Powys Police said the force “received a report that a donkey was stolen from a field in Llandeilo on December 11. Enquiries are being carried out”.

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