A 2-year-old wild donkey stumbled alongside her herd in Riverside County \u2014 a bright blue arrow protruding from her right side. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sight that\u2019s become all too common, and alarming, for local activists, who say there have been at least a half-dozen burro bow attacks in the Moreno Valley area recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of these animals are wounded and if we can\u2019t get them to the hospital, they could get infected and they could suffer,\u201d said Chad Cheatham, vice president of DonkeyLand, a rescue organization. \u201cSo it\u2019s even more horrific to think about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreno Valley Animal Services and the Riverside County Department of Animal Services responded to capture the latest arrow-struck donkey and bring her in for emergency veterinary treatment. <\/p>\n
Volunteers with DonkeyLand have nicknamed her Cupid. <\/p>\n
Riverside County is home to a large wild donkey population, and it\u2019s not uncommon for the animals to be accidentally injured in car accidents or run-ins with fences, according to the Riverside County Sheriff\u2019s Office. However, a disturbing pattern of intentional attacks on the animals began in June, authorities said. <\/p>\n
The first was the weekend of June 14, when a young burro was found grazing with an arrow in her side along Pigeon Pass Road in Moreno Valley, according to information DonkeyLand posted on Facebook. The second burro was found shot by the same make and color arrow near the same road the following Monday.<\/p>\n
Several more burros have since been reported shot along Hidden Springs Drive, Greenridge Drive and Reche Canyon Road. <\/p>\n
The youngest were two burros estimated to be two to four months old, according to DonkeyLand volunteers. Both were shot in their backsides.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were unable to find the little foals. And several of the other ones, we tried unsuccessfully to catch and treat. It\u2019s difficult because they live in the wild,\u201d Cheatham said. \u201cIt\u2019s very possible that they died.\u201d<\/p>\n
The arrows used in the attacks were broadheads, according to DonkeyLand, a style traditionally used for hunting. <\/p>\n
For Cupid, the most recent animal wounded, veterinarians found that the arrow punctured her right lung and nearly struck her left. <\/p>\n
The arrowhead painfully \u201cscrapes against the underside of her shoulder blade every time she moves,\u201d according to DonkeyLand. The force of the arrow\u2019s impact also chipped off part of the donkey\u2019s shoulder bone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like a sport, that they want to go hunting maybe. And it\u2019s not like they kill them instantly,\u201d Cheatham said.<\/p>\n
Local residents, who call the animals \u201cgentle\u201d and \u201charmless,\u201d have expressed outrage online over the attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the residents, I\u2019d say 99% of them, love the burros. They\u2019re part of the community,\u201d Cheatham said. \u201cA lot of people that we know bought houses specifically in this area because the burros were here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The identity of the archer, or archers, remains unknown. But Cheatham says the Moreno Valley community is banding together to keep an eye out and share information.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s being watchful,\u201d Cheatham said. \u201cBecause when you think of the mind of somebody who does that, if they could hurt an animal, they could hurt a human.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anyone with information is asked to call the Riverside County Department of Animal Services at (951) 358-7387, or the Moreno Valley Sheriff\u2019s Station at (951) 955-2400.<\/p>\n
DonkeyLand is also offering a $24,000 reward, raised from donations, for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of anyone who shot the wild donkeys.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been here for over 70 years and they roam between the canyons and they\u2019re just so sweet,\u201d Cheatham said of the burros. \u201cIt baffles all of us as animal lovers. Who could do this?\u201d<\/p>\n
Times staff writer Andrew Khouri contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 2-year-old wild donkey stumbled alongside her herd in Riverside County \u2014 a bright blue arrow protruding from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[20233,104754,25653,64,63,104755,104762,104757,104760,19433,14294,104761,104759,6622,104756,128,104758,104763,338],"class_list":["post-157358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animal","tag-arrow","tag-attack","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chad-cheatham","tag-cupid","tag-donkeyland","tag-information-donkeyland","tag-june","tag-lot","tag-moreno-valley-animal-services","tag-moreno-valley-area","tag-part","tag-riverside-county","tag-science","tag-second-burro","tag-wild-donkey","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}