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U.S.|Perry the Donkey, Model for ‘Shrek,’ Dies at 30
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/07/us/shrek-donkey-perry-dead.html
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As Perry’s health declined, fans rallied behind the animal and his companions living in a Bay Area park.
Jan. 7, 2025, 9:50 p.m. ET
Perry, a miniature donkey whose handlers said he was used by DreamWorks animators as a model for the chatty “Shrek” character named Donkey, died last week at the age of 30.
Jenny Kiratli, lead handler at the Barron Park Donkey Project in Palo Alto, Calif., the organization that took care of Perry, said he was euthanized Thursday after pain in his hooves worsened from a condition called laminitis. Another volunteer handler, Larry Reeves, said Perry had been struggling to move around, and at one point his legs were shaking.
Perry, a Jerusalem miniature donkey, was first brought to California to help calm polo ponies, but instead he nipped at them, according to the project’s website. So in 1997, the “spunky” 3-year-old was brought to Palo Alto’s Bol Park to live in a pasture set aside for donkeys to graze.
In 1999, DreamWorks animators who lived nearby came across Perry and used him as a model for the Donkey character in their upcoming animated movie, “Shrek,” according to volunteers. Some handlers said Donkey, although playful like Perry, did not have much else in common with the character voiced by Eddie Murphy.
“Perry just had an air about him, not so much like the character in Shrek,” said Nanette Singer, who has been volunteering with the group for four years. “He was all light and gentleness and sweetness.”
