{"id":88056,"date":"2025-08-22T06:21:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T06:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/88056\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T06:21:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T06:21:15","slug":"southern-alberta-farm-devastated-by-hailstorm-loses-beloved-camel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/88056\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern Alberta farm devastated by hailstorm, loses beloved camel"},"content":{"rendered":"

A well-known Southern Alberta farm lost two animals and is facing more than $60,000 in damages after a severe thunderstorm<\/a> ripped through the property near Brooks Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cAround 4:30p.m. I was working in my shop\u2026 there was a weather alert that came on the phone and when I came out the back of the shop, the storm was literally 100 yards off the gravel road. A white hail wall,\u201d recalled Denis Jackson, owner of the White Barn Fun Farm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He says he immediately thought his farm was about to be destroyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just coming, there was no stopping it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had basically five minutes to grab whatever I could that was going to blow away. The bigger animals we have were in this corral beside the barn. The wind and rain were coming and the hail \u2013 golf ball and loonie, toonie-size hail had hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

In that corral he had a horse, a pony, three donkeys and a camel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI yelled at them to stay there and hoped for the best. I ran to the house getting beat down by the hail.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"For<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n

As he ran he said he heard breaking glass.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took out all the windows in the top west side of the house,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWindows shattered at the White Barn Fun Farm near Brooks, AB.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDrew Stremick \/ Global News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The storm also ruined farm equipment, broke fencing and snapped 100-year-old trees, ripping their roots from the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt levelled everything here.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the chaos, he said some animals tried to run in search of better shelter, including his five-year-old, 2000 lb. camel Stolli as well as a nine-year-old pony named Butterscotch.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Jackson said Stolli was a visitor favourite at the farm, who often gave children rides. The camel was recently at Stampede.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tCarney holds \u2018productive\u2019 call with Trump as U.S. trade war stretches on\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tBillionaire Elon Musk spotted in Bella Bella, B.C., over weekend\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Stolli<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tStolli was a Bactrian camel.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCredit: White Barn Fun Farm\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

He got hit by falling trees, badly breaking his leg. After speaking to numerous vets, Jackson made the difficult decision to euthanize him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough, he\u2019s part of the family. Not everybody owns a camel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson thinks it will take a few weeks to clean up all the mess.<\/p>\n

Though they\u2019re usually open until the end of September, or early October, \u201cas far as White Barn Fun Farm goes, we\u2019re pretty much done [for the season].\u201d<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\u2013with files from Drew Stremick, Global News.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Calgary
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A well-known Southern Alberta farm lost two animals and is facing more than $60,000 in damages after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,6094,52163,44,18234,1133,52164],"class_list":["post-88056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-extreme-weather","tag-hail-storm","tag-news","tag-thunderstorm","tag-weather","tag-white-barn-fun-farm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}