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New Canaan Neighbors Offer Support For Ailing Donkey

NEW CANAAN, Conn. – Bethany Zaro is overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from her New Canaan neighbors for her pet donkey, Chipper, as the animal recovers from a dog attack.

Chipper, a 20-year-old miniature donkey, is pictured here in an earlier photo. He has received an outpouring of support from New Canaan residents after being attacked by two dogs this week.

Chipper, a 20-year-old miniature donkey, is pictured here in an earlier photo. He has received an outpouring of support from New Canaan residents after being attacked by two dogs this week.

Photo Credit: Bethany Zaro
Chipper, a 20-year-old miniature donkey, has received an outpouring of support from New Canaan residents since he was attacked by two dogs.

Chipper, a 20-year-old miniature donkey, has received an outpouring of support from New Canaan residents since he was attacked by two dogs.

Photo Credit: Bethany Zaro

“I can’t tell you the number of people who’ve reached out,” said Zaro, who has had the miniature donkey at her North Wilton Road home for about 10 years. 

The support includes get-well notes, phone calls from friends, a pony blanket to keep Chipper warm and bunches of carrots to eat.

It’s nice, Zaro says, “to see the community come together for something and have sympathy for [Chipper]. I never thought of the outpouring being like this. I never realized the joy they get from these donkeys.”

Chipper's condition was “stable” as of Friday afternoon, Zaro said, two days after being bitten by two dogs that strayed from a Lantern Ridge Road property. The New Canaan Office of Animal Control fined the dog's owner for allowing her animals to roam.

A veterinarian checked Chipper on Friday, and Zaro has been giving him medicine every three hours for pain and to prevent infection in the puncture wounds on his body and his left eye.

“I’m so nervous about him,” Zaro said. “He’s hanging in there. I’m just like a nervous mother with a sick kid. I want him to be OK, and I’m going to do everything I can. But you never know.”

Once Chipper gets healthy enough, Zaro said, she will ask friends who have visited with her donkeys over the years to come by and help him regain the trust that has been shaken since the attack.

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