Category

Burro

The burro has been in Texas since the late 1500s, helping build railroads, mines, and roads. However, it is considered exotic, and not welcome on many public lands, where it is seen as damaging the habitat and competing with native creatures. Its domestic kin, the donkey, faces problems of abandonment, neglect, abuse, and hoarding, issues that have worsened with recent droughts, where owners can no longer easily feed them.

Interviews

Narrator: Mark MeyersTitle: Head and HeartDuration: 00:02:14Date: February 16, 2023Mark Meyers is the executive director of Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue, and a former electrical contractor and businessman. He has brought his experience in the for-profit world to the charitable field, where he has realized that it is essential that he have the money on hand to do the costly work of caring for abused or abandoned animals.Narrator: Mark MeyersTitle: Already ThereDuration: 00:03:23Date: February 16, 2023Mark Meyers, the executive director of Pleasant Valley Donkey Rescue, explains the donkey's deep historical roots in this country, dating back to 1598, the time of the conquistador Juan de Onate. He is perplexed that Texas Parks and Wildlife has twice tried to eradicate the burros in Big Bend Ranch State Park on the grounds of their impact on the native landscape, since he argues that the burros pre-date any Western record of what that habitat would have looked like without the burro. Also, he founds it is ironic that longhorn cows are allowed to persist in the Park, though they too are non-native.