Foul Called on Donkey Basketball : Moorpark: Activists see abuse in Boys & Girls Club event. But officials say the animals are treated kindly.

Calling it unnecessary cruelty, animal-rights advocates are protesting plans for the Moorpark Boys & Girls Club to raise money Sunday night with a game of donkey basketball.

Ventura County firefighters and deputies plan to mount eight rented donkeys and hit the hoops in the Moorpark College gymnasium at 7 p.m. to benefit the club.

While the game may look harmless, “the real abuses are hidden abuses,” said Denise Ford, executive director of Animal Emancipation Inc. of Ventura.

The donkeys “are being crowded into these cramped trailers, being shipped their entire lives, sometimes nationally for these events,” Ford said.

“It’s a real, real strain on their back to have people not just sitting on them, but a lot of the time, players are bouncing up and down on the animals’ backs. Plus the crowd stress, the noise and the lights.”

The 5-year-old Ventura chapter of the animal-rights group, which claims 300 dues-paying members statewide, does not plan to protest at the game, Ford said. But they have sent written objections to the organizers.

“We’re assuming that at this time they’ve already signed the contract, and it’s a little too late for them to cancel it,” she said. “But we hope they’re simply uninformed of the cruelties inherent in donkey basketball.”

Toni Carbone, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Moorpark, argued that the donkeys are treated kindly, not cruelly.

The American Humane Assn. has endorsed the animals’ owners, a Northern California outfit called the Burro Farm, who transport the animals to the game and manage them on the court, she said.

“We have very carefully checked them out to make sure there was no cruelty,” Carbone said. “The animals are treated kindly. There are no prods, spurs, whips, nothing. They are ridden for only 10 minutes at a time and then they are rested.”

Dee Talley, the club’s fund-raising coordinator, said they hope to raise $6,000 from ticket sales after paying a 50% cut to the Burro Farm.

“I think it would be something that would be a lot of fun . . . and I don’t see anything wrong with it,” Talley said.

Why donkey basketball instead of an event like the club’s annual auction?

“I thought, well, something different, something new that would draw the public out,” Talley said.

The four-legged athletes are mostly 8- or 9-year-olds that were saved from slaughter, said Kathy Dusart, co-owner of the Burro Farm.

While Ford complained that donkeys are dragged, pushed, punched or kicked during basketball games, Dusart said that is not true.

Her husband, Don Dusart, serves as referee and herdsman, controlling the animals with sound commands, such as kissing noises or the slap of a riding crop against his own leg, she said.

The players “have absolutely no control at all,” she said. “All they are is passengers on the donkeys. My husband will move the donkeys from one basket to the other, depending on who has possession of the ball.”

The animals play four 10-minute periods separated by 10-minute rests, she said.

Ford conceded, “It’s not as abusive as the slaughterhouse, for example, but it’s unnecessary. Human basketball would bring in just as much money. If our county Board of Supervisors would play, that would be much more entertaining, and just as funny.”

Countered Dusart: “We feel that God put animals on the Earth for us to use. As long as we don’t abuse that, we should be allowed to do that. We love donkeys, and we don’t want to see them abused.”