Donkey Bites New Canaan Woman during Dog Attack

Paramedics transported a New Canaan woman to a hospital Wednesday morning after a miniature donkey bit her right forearm as she tried to rescue the beast from her own two dogs that were attacking it, police say.

An investigation is underway following the unusual events that transpired shortly after 8 a.m. up near the Pound Ridge, NY border, according to Officer Mary Ann Kleinschmitt, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s animal control unit.

At around 8:10 a.m. two 60-pound Siberian husky mix dogs escaped from their invisible fence on Lantern Ridge Road and attacked the miniature donkey in a corral he shared with another, regular-sized donkey on North Wilton Road, Kleinschmitt said.

“He [the donkey] has 15 puncture wounds all over his body, his tail was torn off and his eye also has a puncture wound on it,” Kleinschmitt told New Canaan Patch. “He has severe injuries to his rear, to his bowel, and legs, and also had two other major head wounds from the dogs.”

The dogs’ owner, realizing they had breached the fence, located the dogs and pulled them off of the miniature donkey and put them into her car. However, during the tussle, the donkey bit her.
Kleinschmitt said the woman was in shock when she arrived on scene.

According to a verbal statement taken on scene, Kleinschmitt said, “Because of pain, the donkey grabbed the arm of the woman and threw her to the ground.”

It isn’t clear what condition that woman is in. Kleinschmitt said that a veterinarian who arrived on scene said the donkey’s injuries were very serious but that, barring infection, it could make a full recovery.

“I have to tell you, I’m very interested to see what happens the next time he [the donkey] sees a dog,” Kleinschmitt said.

The dogs themselves were not injured, she said. Police took them back home to a pen inside the garage, Kleinschmitt said. The other donkey sustained a minor head injury, she said.

The two donkeys are the only such animals registered in New Canaan, Kleinschmitt said. It’s not unusual for a roaming dog to attack farm or similar domestic animals, she said.

What’s far more unusual is for a donkey to bite a person, she said.

“Donkeys usually are very docile and I knew that—and I happen to know this donkey—I know that something bad had to have happened,” she said.

The wounds on the donkey’s body showed that it must have been in severe pain, Kleinschmitt said.

“They [the dogs] had him all over the backs of his two legs, they tried to disembowel him and then one of the dogs, I guess, got him in the eye,” she said. “They knocked him down and that’s when he got a lot of severe head wounds.”

According to the vet, if all goes well, the donkey will “go back to normal,” Kleinschmitt said.

An investigation is underway. No charges have been filed yet, Kleinschmitt said. The animal control officer said she wasn't sure to which hospital paramedics had taken the woman. New Canaan Patch will update this article as more information becomes available.