Father-son donkeys on the lam after crashing fence Tuesday are home

Lori Steineck, The Repository
·3 min read
Home Sweet Home: This donkey duo escaped their farm-animal rescue late Tuesday night. By Thursday morning, courtesy of a neighboring farmer, they were home. Owner Alison Barstow Elliott shows them in "time-out," as she feeds them their favorite treat, peppermint candy.
Home Sweet Home: This donkey duo escaped their farm-animal rescue late Tuesday night. By Thursday morning, courtesy of a neighboring farmer, they were home. Owner Alison Barstow Elliott shows them in "time-out," as she feeds them their favorite treat, peppermint candy.
Owner Alison Barstow Elliott places her donkeys in "time-out" after a neighboring farmer brought them home Thursday afternoon. The donkeys had fled their animal rescue farm late Tuesday night, sparking sightings all over the area.
Owner Alison Barstow Elliott places her donkeys in "time-out" after a neighboring farmer brought them home Thursday afternoon. The donkeys had fled their animal rescue farm late Tuesday night, sparking sightings all over the area.

LAKE TWP. – Dom and Nick, a father and son donkey duo, were on the lam for about 30 hours after escaping their family farm Tuesday night.

The pair of donkeys named for "Dominick, the Italian Christmas Donkey" — who were reunited with their owner Thursday — evidently found the pasture was greener on the other side of the fence, so they crashed through it, their owner Alison Barstow Elliott said Thursday.

She and her husband own Mercy's Meadow, a nonprofit, farm-animal rescue in the 1000 block of Wright Road NW.

Able to elude witnesses, passersby and Stark County sheriff's deputies for at least a day and a half, the donkeys couldn't get past a nearby farmer whose farm is about a mile away, as the crow flies.

They approached him, he tethered them to his truck and then took them back to his barn, Barstow Elliott said.

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The donkeys had been living on a farm with horses that were taken to slaughter about three years ago when Barstow Elliott rescued them.

Now they live on her farm with about 150 other rescued animals that also include horses, cows, alpacas, pigs, ducks, chickens and roosters.

She has seven alpacas, which were witnesses to the start of Dom and Nick's great adventure Tuesday night.

The donkeys tore up the fence, knocking the bottom off and climbing through, Barstow Elliott said.

Alison Barstow Elliott stands at the fence where her donkeys escaped. Her husband has since repaired it. With her are eyewitnesses to their incident - her alpacas.
Alison Barstow Elliott stands at the fence where her donkeys escaped. Her husband has since repaired it. With her are eyewitnesses to their incident - her alpacas.

The father and son darted off into the night.

"The only reason we knew they were gone is because of our alpacas," she said.

Eyewitnesses to the escape. These alpacas watched the donkeys on their animal-rescue farm tear apart their fence and flee late Tuesday night.
Eyewitnesses to the escape. These alpacas watched the donkeys on their animal-rescue farm tear apart their fence and flee late Tuesday night.

"Dom and Nick literally tore up the fence," she said. "That's the reason we knew they were out."

Her husband noticed the alpacas gathered at the fence.

"The alpacas are lovable but they are not very bright, and they were all out. They were just standing where Dom and Nick got out," she said.

She would have never guessed that the donkeys would escape the farm, primarily, she said, "Because we give them everything they want. They get lots of treats!"

But, she added, "(There's) never a dull moment with the donkeys. They're everybody's favorite."

By the time she learned the donkeys were out of the fence, they were long gone.

"I was worried that they were either going to get hit by a car or someone was going to keep them, because they are so sweet," she said.

Around 11:30 p.m.Tuesday, someone in the 1000 block of Hoover Avenue NW called the Stark County Sheriff's Office to report donkeys in the roadway, said Maj. C.J. Stantz. By the time deputies arrived, the donkeys were gone.

Deputies knocked on a few doors, but were not able to locate them.

Alison Barstow Elliott and her alpacas stand at the fence where her two donkeys escaped late Tuesday night.
Alison Barstow Elliott and her alpacas stand at the fence where her two donkeys escaped late Tuesday night.

At 6 a.m. Thursday, "another farmer who lives three farms over on Mogadore (Avenue NW) called and said they have (the donkeys) in their goat pen," Barstow Elliott said.

"The farmer who found them said he saw them and stopped, and they walked over to him," she said. "They were looking for treats. He said he put a lead around them and tethered them to the back of his truck."

The farmer, who lives nearby, took them back to his farm on Lake Center and notified her.

She surmised that they went about a half mile west of her rescue and then two miles north where the farmer saw them on Mogadore Road, which his farm borders. His farm is two streets away from hers.

He and his brother used their livestock trailer to return the donkeys to their Mercy's Meadows home on Thursday afternoon, and by 4 p.m. they were in their stall.

"They're in timeout," Barstow Elliott said, adding that she couldn't say upset with them for long.

Then she fed them pieces of their favorite treat, peppermint candy.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Dom and Nick the donkeys are back home in Lake Township