Latest Donkeys Stories

Donkeys, the worst hit by the drought, rescued by the Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue MILES, Texas, July 28, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Over 300 donkeys have been rescued so far this year in Texas as a direct result of the drought. The current drought, the worst in recorded Texas history, has resulted in hay shortages and low water tables. Ranchers are selling off their livestock but have no resources to get rid of their donkeys. Donkeys, especially in Texas, are overpopulated and hold...

Genetic investigators say the partnership between people and the ancestors of today's donkeys was sealed not by monarchs trying to establish kingdoms, but by mobile, pastoral people who had to recruit animals to help them survive the harsh Saharan landscape in northern Africa more than 5,000 years ago.The findings, reported today by an international research team in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, paint a surprising picture of what small, isolated groups of people were able to accomplish...

Neighbors of a family in Andover, Mass., say they should not be forced to hear the family's two donkeys bray for food from their backyard home. Trained biologist Leyla Schimmel said the two donkeys her family houses behind their neo-Colonial house would only bray on the rare occasion her 12-year-old daughter is late in getting the animals their food, The Boston Globe said Sunday. Schimmel said her neighbors should not have been able to complain about any odors caused by her family's two...

By Nichola Groom LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two cloned mules finished third and seventh in a Nevada mule race on Sunday, disappointing the scientists who created them a day after each animal won its respective elimination heat. But winning aside, scientists said the strong performances of the mules, named Idaho Gem and Idaho Star, will be key to showing the public that the controversial technology produces normal, healthy animals. Idaho Gem, the world's first equine clone, took third...

STOCKTON, Calif. -- In a low-stakes mule race in a remote corner of the West, nature versus nurture will be put to the test as two of the horse family's earliest clones challenge naturally bred runners next month in Nevada.It's not exactly the Kentucky Derby, but two cloned mules named Idaho Star and Idaho Gem will compete in a professional mule race in Winnemucca, Nev., where the professional mule racing season begins.Idaho Gem was the first animal from the horse family cloned and his...

ST. THOMAS, Barbados (AP) -- It's male. But what is it? A zonkey? A deebra? That's the debate in Barbados since a zebra gave birth to a foal sired by a donkey. Alex was born April 21, a milk-chocolate brown creature with the black stripes of a zebra on his ears and legs. His face looks more like a horse, with a distinctive black "V" patch on the forehead. "It's really funny and a little bit freaky," said Natalie Harvey, a 29-year-old waitress. "I was stunned to hear...