From the June 9, 1983 edition of The Wayne Herald
Farmer's livestock creates stir with town kids
Lyle Cunningham is dabbling in the mail-order burro business.
Cunningham recently adopted four burrows through a federal adoption program he read about in a newspaper advertisement.
He adopted two jacks and two jennies and has them corralled on his 22 acres south of Carroll, where he also raised quarter horses.
The burrows run wild throughout the mountainous regions of the western U.S. They have reproduced to the point where their food supply is starving. Instead of killing the animals, the Department of the Interior decided to put the animals up for adoption.
One of the jennies gave birth to a foal on May 24, approximately six weeks after Cunningham's shipment arrived. The young burrow appears to be all legs and ears.
"With those great big ears, you'd think she would fall over frontwards," Cunningham said. "About every kid in town has stopped by just to see that burrow. It's been like Grand Central Station around here.
Cunningham said the foal is healthy despite the long trip the burrows had from California.
The burrows were also "real thin and down," he said. "You could count their ribs and their backbones were sticking up. You wouldn't believe it now looking at them."
Cunningham estimates the burrows now weigh close to 400 pounds each- about 40 to 50 pounds more than when they arrived.
