The donkey that inspired the character Donkey in the Oscar-winning animated film Shrek has passed away at the age of 30.
The real-life miniature donkey was named Pericles, but was known affectionately as Perry. When the 2001 original film was made, Perry acted as a model for the animators. In the film, Donkey is memorably voiced by actor Eddie Murphy, and is the talkative sidekick to Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers). The character of Donkey appears in the original film and its three sequels.
According to a 2021 article in SFGate, Perry was born in New York but was sold and shipped off to California to be a polo pony companion. Then Hollywood came calling. Perry had been residing at Bol Park in Palo Alto since 1997 and one of the Shrek animators lived nearby and came over with his colleagues to study the donkey for the film.
“It’s evident if you know Perry and watch the movie that it’s him,” said one of Perry’s handlers, Jenny Kiratli. “It’s amazing how much of our donkey is in Donkey, the way he flips his head when he’s mad at Shrek, the way he trots.”
According to Palo Alto Online, Perry was euthanized after developing laminitis; he also had an issue on a hind leg that forced him to stand on three legs. “For a month, he had just been standing on three legs and keeping one lifted,” Kiratli told the media outlet.
Efforts were made to relieve Perry’s discomfort, including pain medication and massage therapy, but as his condition worsened the difficult decision was made to say goodbye to the beloved donkey. More than a dozen of the Bol Park volunteer handlers were with him when he passed.
“In Perry’s last weeks, handlers spent many hours at the pasture with him, petting him, cradling him, singing to him, and telling him that he was, and always will be, loved,” Kiratli told the Palo Alto reporter. “We are all blessed for having known him and we will never, ever forget him.”
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