Anguilla’s most elderly and best-known donkey died on Saturday, December 14 at age 40.
He belonged to Adele Smith who attended the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School in the mid-1980s. It was a familiar sight to see the donkey grazing around the Forest area or being ridden around there and later to and from East End.
He acquired the name of “Jimmy Carter” when he consumed an entire peanut patch overnight. The donkey arrived in St Maarten from St Kitts in 1981 and was brought to Anguilla in 1984. He was for many years the only donkey in Anguilla.
Throughout the late 1980s-1990s he would be invited to Government House to give donkey rides to children for charity at the Christmas Fair and also at children’s birthday parties.
The last twelve years of his life were spent grazing peacefully, courtesy of the landowner, on grassy fields at West End. He had become well-known by then and tourists, and local people alike, would visit him with offerings of carrots, apples, bread and other such food which was always gratefully accepted.
For this donkey, the “Jimmy Carter” era is at an end.
– Contributed
