09/15/2026
A very Special THANK YOU!
The Eli & Watson Bachelor Sanctuary
A Gift of Safety. A Legacy of Compassion.
Today, DonkeyLand celebrates an extraordinary milestone—and an extraordinary act of compassion. Our newly completed Eli & Watson Bachelor Sanctuary, a 450+ acre expansion, represents a new chapter in our mission to provide safe, appropriate, and lifelong refuge for wild burros in need.
This sanctuary was made possible through the remarkable generosity of the Wendy P. McCaw Foundation and one deeply meaningful conversation. When Wendy McCaw learned about the urgent situation facing the Moreno Valley 60 Freeway herd—wild burros living dangerously close to high-traffic areas—she understood that these animals needed more than a temporary solution. They needed somewhere safe to go.
Wendy personally called DonkeyLand founder Amber-LeVonne and asked a simple but powerful question: “What is your greatest need?” That question changed what was possible.
Together, Wendy and Amber envisioned a permanent sanctuary created especially for the bachelor herds—a place where these boys could remain together, protected and cared for throughout their lives. Creating a sanctuary on this scale required far more than simply setting aside land. It required the infrastructure necessary to transform open acreage into a safe and lasting refuge.
Through Wendy’s extraordinary generosity, DonkeyLand was able to undertake the enormous work of fencing hundreds of acres with miles upon miles of protective fencing and establishing a water well to provide an essential, reliable source of water for the burros. Her generosity helped transform land already owned by DonkeyLand into something these boys desperately needed: a sanctuary, a refuge, and a home.
In a beautiful and deeply personal tribute, the sanctuary was named The Eli & Watson Bachelor Sanctuary, honoring Wendy’s own beloved donkeys, Eli and Watson. Their names will forever be part of this sanctuary, and through every wild burro who finds safety here, their legacy will live on.
Because the Boys Matter, Too.
Bachelor burros can be among those with the fewest options, but their lives are no less precious, their safety is no less important, and their future matters, too. These boys have personalities, friendships, and powerful social bonds of their own. They travel together, play together, protect one another, and form bachelor herds that become their family.
The Eli & Watson Bachelor Sanctuary was thoughtfully created for established bachelor herds—groups of intact male burros who have naturally formed strong social bonds in the wild. Here, they can remain with the herds they know and live out their lives in a safe, expansive, and stable environment.
For boys who once faced an uncertain future, there is now something priceless waiting for them: a permanent place to call home, where they can remain together, protected and free from harm. It is a place that quietly says, “You matter, too. You are worth protecting. You belong here.”
With Our Deepest Gratitude
Wendy, there are gifts that meet an immediate need, and then there are gifts that change what is possible for generations to come. Yours is one of those gifts.
From Amber and everyone at DonkeyLand—and most especially from the boys whose lives and futures have been forever changed because you cared—thank you. Thank you for listening, for asking what was truly needed, and for believing these lives were worth protecting. Thank you for helping create the fencing that now surrounds them with safety, for helping provide the water that sustains them, and for giving established bachelor herds the opportunity to remain together.
Most of all, thank you for seeing something in these boys that we wish everyone could see: they matter, too.
You did far more than help build fences and establish a water well. You gave these boys a future. Because of your generosity, wild burros who once lived with uncertainty and danger now have hundreds of protected acres where they can simply be what they were always meant to be—wild burros, together.
The Eli & Watson Bachelor Sanctuary will forever carry the names of your beloved Eli and Watson. Their legacy will live across these protected acres, in the water that sustains the herds, and most importantly, through the lives of the wild burros who are safe because this sanctuary exists.
It all began with one compassionate question: “What is your greatest need?” You listened to the answer and chose to do something extraordinary about it.
Wendy, thank you for believing in DonkeyLand, for believing in these boys, and for giving them something they could never ask for themselves—a safe place to call home.
Because of you, these boys have a future. Because of you, they can remain together. And because of you, the names Eli & Watson will forever stand for compassion, protection, and the belief that the boys matter, too.
With all our hearts, thank you.
Eli & Watson’s legacy will live on.
https://www.animalzone.org/episode/season-16/ep-06
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Season 16, Episode 06 - AnimalZone: No Horsing Around: Welcome to Donkeyland - Season 16, Episode 06 AnimalZone kicks up its hooves and heads to the high desert of San Bernardino County for a visit to Donkeyland, an extraordinary sanctuary where more than 1,000 wild donkeys have found a place to roa...
