Zelda the zonkey may have a new zest for life thanks to the Nova Scotia woman who saved the exotic animal from a slaughterhouse.
The unusual zebra-donkey hybrid, also known as a zebroid, ended up on a charity’s Facebook page of animals waiting to be transported to a New Jersey slaughterhouse. Zelda was set to either be sold or killed -- that is, until Ashleigh Benton came across her photo.
"She came across the page and she just caught my eye because she is the exotic hybrid that was bred specifically to be that novelty,” Benton told CTV Atlantic. “And then she ends up in the slaughter pipeline, which is very unfair.”
One hour before the zonkey was set to be transported to slaughter, Benton made the call to transport Zelda to safekeeping at a Maine rescue facility. In hopes of bringing the six-year-old animal to Nova Scotia, Benton launched an online fundraiser to pay for the transportation.
Benton said she’s a student and doesn’t have a steady income, so she turned to the kindness of strangers to fund the trip.
“I thought, I can’t do this. But the more I looked at her, the more she just got in there,” Benton said, gesturing to her head. “I thought, well I guess I could fundraise for her.”
She’s already raised more than $2,800 of her $3,500 goal, with donations pouring in from across the Atlantic region.
Zelda has since had her Canadian health certificate processed and is expected to make the trip to Nova Scotia sometime this weekend.
Benton recently visited the zonkey in Maine, where the animal has been receiving proper veterinary care. Once Zelda makes the trip to Canada, the zonkey will start life afresh in Chester Basin, N.S., a community about 70 kilometres west of Halifax.
In the coming years, Benton says she hopes to buy land and a barn to start her own animal rescue operation.
“(My) ultimate goal is to own and operate a rescue facility myself, so that’s my future plan,” she said.
With files from CTV Atlantic
