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Features
Bol Park Donkeys : A piece of Palo Alto history Perry Every Sunday at 5 p.m., children residing in the Barron Park neighborhood and beyond flock to the Cornelis Bol Park preserve where two donkeys, Miner Forty-Niner and Perry, spend their days. Donkeys have been a tradition of the Barron Park community since the 1930s, living in an enclosed area adjacent to the Bol Park bike path. Perry, a 19-year-old donkey whose full name is Pericles, was used as a model for a computer-generated imagery (CGI) character in the 2001 film “Shrek.” Dreamworks, the company that produced the film, had a subsidiary that came to the park and tracked his movements as a basis for the character Donkey. One of the lead handlers, Barron Park Association Board Member Doug Moran, recalls watching the movie and recognizing his friend. “We could tell it was him from the way he held his head, from the way he cocked his ears,” he said. “He was incredibly recognizable in the movie.” Perry moved to Bol Park when he was three years old in 1997. In September and November of 2012, Perry suffered two attacks from the same German Shephard. After the second one in November, he was hospitalized for five days after suffering a major loss of skin on his right cheek. “The cheek was largely torn off and skin was hanging off,” Moran said. According to head handler Robert Frost, the dog was removed from the city due to the dangers it was causing to both the donkeys and the local residents. “The city of Palo Alto and animal control were all informed about it, and eventually the people decided that he had to be taken away to a different area,” he said. Moran describes Perry as the more mischievous animal of the two. Shortly after Perry had arrived, the city council inspected the pasture to decide whether or not to keep the preserve. “He wasn’t used to having a lot of people not pay attention to him, so he bit down hard on my arm,” Moran said. “But I couldn’t scream and let them think he was dangerous, so I explained that a normal characteristic of donkeys was to bite down on their protector’s tail.”
Graphics by George Hwang, Photos by Audey Shen
Miner Forty-Niner While the prestige of movie stardom always belongs to Perry, Miner Forty-Niner was, in fact, the original choice for the 2001 movie “Shrek.” After being led down to the Bol Park grass area by Dreamworks animators to record his movements, Miner was eventually passed over in favor of Perry; Miner was kicked off the set for attempting to eat the producer’s shoes, according to the Barron Park Association Board Member Doug Moran. At 30 years old, Miner is the older and larger of the two. He was brought to the Bol Park reserve shortly before Perry in July 1997. “When it was clear that it was Mickey’s [one of the previous donkeys’] last year, we looked hard and got Miner,” Moran said. When he was 16 years of age, he was donated by a Los Altos Hills family on its way to Colorado with no place to keep him. Miner, as Moran describes him, is the calmer and wiser of the two. “Miner thinks he’s much more a part of the human crowd,” he said. “He’s a much mellower one, and he’s just big and friendly.” Head handler Robert Frost attributes the difference in Perry and Miner’s personalities to their different upbringings. “Perry was born a domesticated animal,” he said. “Miner, however, started off as a wild animal growing up in the desert.” The care of Miner and his companion comes solely from volunteers. Twice a day, various members of a volunteer group dedicated to the Bol Park donkeys feed the animals, check up on their water and clean up the manure. The donkeys’ well-being is funded by the Acterra foundation and various local citizens.
—Compiled by Nabeel Chollampat