Matchmakers Hope to Cash in on Star Donkey

Sonette, the rare French donkey that faced death or exile last year because of a bureaucratic snafu by the federal government, soon will have a boyfriend.

Sonette’s owners, Drs. Jack and Sharon Vanderlip, UC San Diego veterinarians, plan to bring in a male Poitou donkey and another pair to join the now-famous Sonette at their ranch here, just east of Leucadia.

“We plan to go over (to France) and bring the animals back with us in November,” Sharon Vanderlip said Thursday.

When 6-month-old Sonette arrived in Los Angeles in December, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials ordered her destroyed or returned to France because the donkey failed USDA tests designed to detect equine diseases.

Vanderlip explained that donkeys and other exotic breeds do not respond to the USDA test, which has been used since 1910 to prevent the import of diseased animals into the United States.

Since December, when Sonette was ordered destroyed or deported, federal officials have updated their testing methods for equines after feeling public and political pressure, Vanderlip said.

But the progress came at a cost to the couple, who say the problems surrounding Sonette “cost us thousands of dollars out of our own pockets.” A nonprofit foundation formed to aid with Sonette’s expenses “brought in only $704,” which did not even pay for the formation of the foundation or printing of leaflets advertising it.

So far, Sonette, now a yearling, and her stablemate, Savane, a yearling Mulassier female, have been nothing but a drain on the Vanderlips’ time and budget.

But publicity over the donkey’s plight has made her a celebrity, and the couple hopes to cash in on it. The cute, curly-haired Poitou donkey became popular after a series of newspapers articles changed the minds of federal officials. The donkey was quarantined for three weeks and subsequently rescued by the Vanderlips, with the help of the San Diego Zoo.

“She receives letters from fans, and gets invitations to appear at events and in parades,” Vanderlip said. “We recently have had a query from the Johnny Carson show, and a toy manufacturer is negotiating to put out a Sonette toy.”

Vanderlip also has written a children’s story about Sonette and her adventures. The manuscript is now in the hands of publishers.

The couple hopes that Sonette will eventually “finance” a planned breeding program to re-establish the rare Poitou donkeys. The couple intends to cross the animals with equally rare Mulassier draft horses and produce Poitou mules, which once were the horsepower for much of European agriculture.

These breeds were nearly erased by World Wars I and II, Vanderlip said, when many of the animals were killed in battle or for food.

Federal officials’ updated testing methods have changed importing procedures to allow the San Diego Zoo to import an exotic Asiatic ass--a kiang. The breed had long been barred from the United States because it could not pass quarantine procedures, Vanderlip said.

The Vanderlips plan to fly to France in November and bring back the three Poitou donkeys and the male Mulassier on Nov. 19. But, Sharon Vanderlip said, it will be several years before there will be any offspring from the herd. Poitou donkeys must be 3 to 4 years old before they can be bred, she explained, and gestation takes another 12 months.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) has agreed to introduce a resolution before year’s end which would force the USDA to modernize its testing procedures in line with other countries’ practices.

“Right now, many valuable animals are being destroyed,” because of the 75-year-old testing procedure, said Sharon Vanderlip. “And, worse yet, the test fails to identify all diseased animals,” allowing equine infections into the country.

“We hope that the good that will come out of Sonette’s experience will be the improvement of testing procedures so that exotic equine species can be imported into this country and equine diseases kept out,” she said.