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STORY SUMMARY

Video by Lynn Beittel, Visionary Video | Voice of Stephanie Salazar WAIKII RANCH, Hawaii: 191 feral donkeys living in the Waikoloa area are one step closer to what will hopefully be a better life. This weekend, hundreds of the Waikoloa Nightingales were herded into the pen here at Waikii Ranch, part of a busy re-homing […]

WAIKII RANCH, Hawaii: 191 feral donkeys living in the Waikoloa area are one step closer to what will hopefully be a better life.

This weekend, hundreds of the Waikoloa Nightingales were herded into the pen here at Waikii Ranch, part of a busy re-homing clinic.

The donkeys, estimated to part of a herd of 600, has been encroaching on the nearby Waikoloa Village overthe years, causing accidents on Waikoloa Road and other community concerns. The situation reached a boiling point last year, when the extreme drought drove the donkeys into the village outskirts in search of resources.

The community has been wrestling with the problem of how to manage the herd, and there was even talk of having to thin the numbers by shooting the animals. So when the United States Humane Society joined forces with Brady Bergin, a Waimea veterinarian, animal lovers were relieved and the iconic donkeys were given new hope.

The clinic was a large undertaking… lots of work to prepare the donkeys for their new lives. In this video, Inga Gibson of the Humane Society of the United States explains how all of the jacks were fully anesthetized (medicated