The trio of donkeys was known for its Houdini-like escapes, Spruill said. But the community didn’t seem to mind … in fact, they were popular with the locals who enjoyed their regular visits.
“When the dogs start barking, everybody knows it’s Pete and Pearl visiting,” he said.
Spruill, of 645 Gibbtown Road, who works at the Craven-Pamlico Animal Shelter, said he spends a lot of time plugging new holes in his fences.
“I would put them up,” he would say of the donkeys’ escapes, “and they would go down the fence and go right through. I’d go see where they got out, secure the post, chase them and put them back in. And, boom! They’re back out again. It’s a game to them.”
Their game on Saturday turned fatal.
Spruill and his wife, Wanda, purchased Pete and Pearl for his 70-acre farm two or three years ago, he said. About six months ago, Pete and Pearl had a baby, a colt they named Peanut “to keep the ‘P’ thing going,” Spruill said.
“One of the main reasons I got them was for the grandkids, and for the fun of it,” he said. He also got them for his chickens.
“We have a lot of coyotes out there,” he said. “Down in Texas they have a donkey for every 50 or a hundred cows, because (donkeys) will stomp a coyote to death.”
The donkeys have served that post well, he said. “We’ve lost a few chickens in the past,” he said, “But we haven’t had any problems with coyotes ever since.”
Now, he says, chickens and a horse are all he has.
Spruill said when he came home Saturday evening he went searching and found Pearl about a mile from the house. “I saw Pearl standing in the middle of the road,” he said, “and I thought it was kind of funny because you always saw them together, and Peanut was not going to be far from Pearl.”
He said as he pulled up, “she was looking back and honking. I saw two lumps in the fields that were three cuts over.”
When he investigated, he found Pete and Peanut dead.
It was getting dark, Spruill said, and he knew he needed to get Pearl home. “That was a slow process because she moped the whole way,” he said.
The next day, he took the tractor to retrieve and bury the other donkeys, he said, and when he turned them over he saw the bullet holes. “I went ahead and buried them,” he said. “It’s just a part of life. Death: your animals die, you bury them. I was upset, my wife was upset, but it’s got to be done.”
On Monday, Spruill found Pearl dead in her stall.
“I knew donkeys, when they have a loss, will cry and be depressed,” he said. “I guessed she had died of a broken heart or whatever.”
Pamlico deputies and Berkley Hill, Pamlico Animal Control officer, arrived and, when Pearl’s body was brought out of the pen, bullet holes were found in her as well.
She’d been shot at the same time as the other donkeys, Spruill said, “but she took longer to die.”
He said the carcasses of all three donkeys were retrieved Tuesday morning and sent to the Rollins Animal Laboratory in Raleigh for a necropsy.
He said his wife has been particularly upset, but that not all of his grandchildren were yet aware of what happened. He added that, after his wife put the situation up on Facebook, “all hell broke loose. … We never knew they were so popular until they hit this Facebook thing.”
The killing of the animals is a felony animal cruelty offense.
According to a sheriff’s news release, which initially identified the animals as mules, neighbors in the area saw a silver SUV, similar to a Chevrolet Suburban, in the area shortly before shots were heard.
A $500 reward is offered for the shooters’ apprehension.
A spokesman with the Pamlico County Sheriff’s Office said that this is the first incident like this they have dealt with in some time and could not say if it could happen again.
“Just keep an eye on your animals, keep an eye on your neighbors’ animals, and report anything suspicious,” he said.
Anyone with any information on the shooting can call the sheriff’s office at 745-3101.
(Sun Journal - Feb 2, 2016)
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