Ed was a brown and white spotted Standard donkey who was born in 1984 in West Virginia. For much of his life he was neglected and ill-fed. Day after day he hobbled around on hooves that were seldom trimmed and often abscessed. One day, when he was 12 years old, things changed for Ed. A caring woman happened to visit the farm where he lived and she persuaded the owner that Ed should be sold to her. Months passed and under the woman’s positive care, Ed’s condition improved gradually. Eventually he was able to live amongst the other donkeys that were resident at the farm.
Then one day, after several years of caring for Ed, the woman suffered some financial setbacks and she realized that she would have to find another home for him. Although Ed was fully recovered, the woman knew that he would be susceptible to a recurrence of his earlier hoof problems if he did not receive knowledgeable care. Fortunately, she had read about The Donkey Sanctuary of Canada in The Brayer, the publication of the American Donkey and Mule Society, and so she contacted the DSC office soon thereafter.
As a result, Ed and another donkey, Little Britches, were trailered to the Sanctuary Farm by the woman in September 1999.
Although the DSC was able to make Ed more comfortable and give him a good quality of life for many years beyond that projected by various professionals, the damage done to his hooves in his early years continued to plague him. in the fall of 2011, we could no longer manage his pain, and the decision was made to humanely euthanize him.