By Libby Cluett
lcluett@mineralwellsindex.com
The donkey’s role in history spans the globe, and includes serving as the Biblical vehicle for many, perhaps most notably Mary and Jesus.
They were used to form this continent – for logging, mining, driving and riding
Mineral Wells was founded on the back of a donkey. Photographs depict town founder James Alvis Lynch riding one in the late 1800s. A donkey stand in downtown Mineral Wells was influential in early tourism.
Donkeys took visitors up and down East Mountain. Part way up the mountain, tourists had their photographs taken astride the equines. Mineral Wells High School named its yearbook “The Burro” after the noble creature that played a starring role in early Mineral Wells.
Donkeys paid their dues to this town, county and the country.
So why has the activity of roping donkeys come to Mineral Wells, some query. A recent Index article sharing this activity has caused people across the globe – from Mineral Wells to California, Wyoming, Canada and France – to express their concern over donkey roping.
According to organizers of last weekend’s team roping event at Longhorn Arena, the activity is popular in West Texas. It includes two cowboys chasing a donkey and roping the neck and hind feet for a score and prize money. But according to one roper, donkeys are popular in Palo Pinto County as a training tool for roping horses.
Despite this alleged popularity, many say it is cruel, abusive treatment for the intelligent long-eared equines, which are considered companion animals.
Saturday’s roping team roping event within Mineral Wells city limits left some surprised and others dismayed. Donkeys were lassoed around the neck and then around the hind legs to score.
“I don’t know why anyone would want to rope donkeys,” said one man before Saturday’s donkey roping event started.
Another citizen said she stopped by the Longhorn Arena curious “to see what was going on. It just seemed odd to me to have all those donkeys crammed into that little pen. It was sad,” said Ellen Hargle.
When the chute opened, many donkeys stood still at the chute, unwilling to run until pressured. When they ran and were roped around the neck, many tucked their back ends, apparently evading having their legs roped. Once a run was over, cowboys tried to get the donkeys into a catch pen, made with a narrow opening and low bar for cattle.
“One thing I saw was a metal bar that [the donkeys] had to step over to get into the holding pen. A donkey still had a rope around its neck, but he didn’t want to step over the bar,” said Hargle. “A rider body-slammed the donkey’s hind end with his horse’s shoulder and the donkey fell to its knees over the bar.”
“I saw another donkey being jerked by the neck after being roped and I saw another one fall down at the end of the rope,” she added. “I was kind of appalled … [and] thought it was kind of cruel. I felt sorry for the donkeys especially when the ropers went after the hind feet.”
Criminal acts?
All of this has led some in the area to question and examine Texas law.
Texas Penal Code 42.09, Cruelty to Livestock Animals, states, “A person commits an offense if the person intentionally or knowingly: (1) tortures a livestock animal; (8) trips a horse; or (9) seriously overworks a livestock animal.”
Regarding overworking livestock, some suggest doing the math.
U.S. Team Roping Championship rules state, “Stock contractors are required to have a minimum number of cattle equal to one-third the number of teams in the largest day of the competition.”
This would mean that last weekend’s donkey roping needed a minimum of 50 animals for the 150 teams, yet the organizers said they had 20 donkeys and many more people than they expected.
“According to the USTRC it is inhumane to run cattle that many times. It is in their rules and bylaws. So here we are with an equine companion animal being roped too much,” said Millsap resident Richard Bruner – a farrier and team roper who also runs a satellite rescue and adoption center for the Texas Burro Rescue.
There are other reasons why many feel donkeys are not suitable for roping.
“Donkeys are work and friend animals and just aren’t made for roping. They can’t handle it physically or emotionally,” said Bruner. “The physical makeup of a donkey, or any equine, is that their necks are long, unlike steers, which have an esophagus placed higher and deeper in the muscles of their short necks. A donkey’s esophagus can be crushed by a rope because of its placement and exposure.”
“Also, the donkey’s hide is not thick enough. Rope burns are not good for any sport, whether its cattle or equines. They wrap steer’s horns to protect them, but did they wrap anything on the donkeys?”
“Let’s ask the people roping last weekend to send their good roping horse out of the chute and chase it down and choke it.”
Bruner said that donkeys are not built to have their hind legs roped, as they are in team roping events. “Their stifle joints [similar to a person’s knee] cannot handle that type of tripping. That’s why they outlawed horse tripping.”
A different view
One area roper and roping horse trainer, who competed Saturday, offered his opinion on donkey roping. Because of the tremendous response to donkey roping, the Index agreed not to use his name.
“I train roping horses on donkeys because they last longer than cattle do and they’re cheaper,” he said. “Normally I use donkeys to train heeling horses.”
He said he knows people in Benjamin, Texas, who have a donkey-roping team. “It doesn’t hurt the donkey, it’s no different than roping a steer. There’s no harm done. They’re ten times tougher than any cow ever born; their skin is tougher.”
“Their natural instinct is to run,” he added. “There’s a bunch of people in Palo Pinto County doing this because [donkeys] run a pattern, [unlike cows]. You can train them to run a pattern.”
When asked if he trims his donkey’s hooves, the area roper said, “Oh no. These donkeys are wild. Where they’re turned out, they pretty much trim themselves. They’re a training tool for me; that’s all.”
But for Bruner, a donkey’s emotional side is another story. “They do not rehabilitate well and often have to be sent to a sanctuary,” he said of roping donkeys.
Bary Clower, another participant in Saturday’s event, said the event was supposed to be for a small group – 20 to 30 teams – but then more ropers stopped and he said the next thing they knew they had a rodeo going. Since the roping event, he seems to have reflected and asked how to get in touch with the area rescue groups.
“If it’s going to draw that much negative attention and cause someone to see what I’m doing rather than see Christ coming through me, I don’t want to do it,” said Clower. “I don’t want to draw more attention to the treatment of the creature than the creator.”
