MORENO VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — A wild burro dubbed Cupid is recovering from surgery after being shot with an arrow in what officials say is the latest in a series of a half-dozen attacks since June on donkeys that roam semirural areas of inland Southern California.
The 2-year-old female burro was spotted last Wednesday with a blue arrow protruding from her right shoulder as she wandered with a herd in the foothills of Moreno Valley, about 65 miles (104 km) east of Los Angeles.
Animal services and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department responded and helped bring the wounded animal in for an emergency procedure to remove the arrowhead. The projectile had punctured the burro’s right lung, said Chad Cheatham, vice president of DonkeyLand, a nonprofit rescue organization.
“Right now she’s stable and is standing, which is a huge improvement,” Cheatham said Monday. When Cupid is fully recovered, she will join a group of rescued burros who meander DonkeyLand’s 2,000-acre (800-hectare) sanctuary and wildlife preserve.
The rescue group is offering a $24,000 reward, raised from donations, for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in at least six bow attacks on burros over the past several months.
The Riverside County Department of Animal Services said Tuesday that the investigation is ongoing, and asked for the public’s help in identifying a suspect or suspects.
Wild burros are protected under federal law. They are an iconic symbol of the American Southwest, dating to their days as pack animals for people flocking to California during the Gold Rush.
Cheatham said burros have become an “unofficial mascot” of Moreno Valley, where hundreds of them have rambled freely for at least 75 years. They even help with wildfire abatement by munching on tinder- dry grass in remote and ready-to-burn canyons across Riverside and San Bernardino counties, he said.
“So they really do provide a benefit to the community. The firefighters love them because, they say, ‘Man, these guys can go places we can’t go,’ ” Cheatham said.
The animals are docile but sometimes they can be a nuisance if they chomp on residents’ flowers or block roads when motorists stop to feed them from their cars, he said.
Last year, neighboring San Bernardino County, where wild burros are estimated to number in the thousands, contracted with the nonprofit Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue to humanely capture the animals and relocate them to sanctuaries.
“While the wild burros delight many residents and visitors, they also commonly encounter vehicle traffic and freight trains, resulting in tragedy for burros and humans,” the county said in a statement. “The burros also seriously injure themselves leading to infection and death when they become entangled in fencing or when their hooves get caught in cemetery flower vases.”
The arrows used in the Moreno Valley attacks were broadheads, a style traditionally used for hunting, according to Cheatham. According to DonkeyLand, the first was the weekend of June 14, when a young burro was found grazing with an arrow in her side not far from where Cupid was discovered. A few days later, a second burro was found shot with a similar style of arrow in the same area.
Since then, at least three other donkeys were shot in the vicinity, including a pair estimated to be two to four months old, the rescue group said.
Healthy donkeys typically live 40 years or more and vary in size from waist-high “minis” that may weigh 300 pounds (135 kilograms) to bulky “mammoths.”
Last year, two men pleaded guilty to federal charges for using high-powered rifles to kill three wild burros in Southern California’s Mojave Desert, about 90 miles (145 km) north of Moreno Valley. statement.
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