Texas Fauna Project

Burro

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Mark 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.