Belleville teen petitions against donkey basketball fundraiser, calling it animal cruelty
When Tristen Niccum attended the “donkey basketball” fundraiser at Belleville West High School on April 19, he didn’t expect to leave early.
But when the Belleville East senior saw students from his high school mounting the animals to play a game of basketball against West while riding them, he said it just made him sad.
“When the donkeys walked out, you could tell they didn’t want to be there,” Niccum said. “It upset me. The people playing were not concerned about the animals at all.”
For donkey basketball fundraisers, students sell tickets leading up to the game. According to Dairlyand Donkeyball, the company that hosts the fundraisers, the participating school receives 40 percent of all ticket sales and 50 percent of ticket sales total over $3,000.
The donkeys wear rubber shoes that are supposed to protect wood or synthetic gym floors and students are outfitted with helmets. At a pre-game meeting, students are taught how to guide, properly mount and dismount the animals.
“Basically anything that insurance companies would require,” said C.J. Cordell, co-owner of Dairyland Donkeyball.
Cordell denied any cruelty happens at donkey basketball events and said he wants people to realize that the animals are trained, not wild.
“You can’t force a donkey to go against their will,” he said. “They’re strong animals. There’s a reason they have a reputation for being stubborn.”
But Niccum said that’s not what he observed.
“It’s cruelty to force an animal to do something like that that they don’t want to do,” Niccum said. “You could tell, in the beginning of the game, when students were trying to get on them, the donkeys were not having it. Some of them actually shook people to the ground and kicked them. Even after that, they continued to try to get on.”
Cordell said that’s just a matter of people not knowing much about farm animals or understanding animal behavior.
Niccum went home that night and posted a video on his Instagram account that showed a student tugging on a donkey’s reins and the donkey resisting. The caption for the video said, “Maybe we should focus on saving money to replace our 20 year old books instead of ‘donkey basketball.’”
The video can be seen on bnd.com.
That video now has more than 2,500 views and more than 600 comments. Most of the comments are defending the fundraiser, Niccum said. He thinks people are mad at him for challenging a school tradition. Some have even made fake profiles mocking him and threatened to fight him, he said.
“People are getting carried away,” Niccum said. “They’re not even concerned about the donkeys anymore.”
Belleville High School District 201 Superintendent Jeff Dosier said the donkey basketball fundraiser has been “a long-standing tradition” in the Belleville high schools for decades.
Dosier, who said he has attended the fundraisers in the past but was not at the recent event, said the district plans to meet with Niccum.
“We’ll sit down and talk with him and listen to what he has to say and we’ll also talk with the student council,” Dosier said.
The district also will reach out to the company that provides the donkeys.
Dosier said it is too early to say whether the district would change its policy on allowing donkey basketball on school gym floors.
Niccum started an online petition asking people to speak out against the fundraiser. By Thursday night, at least 515 people had signed it, including people from different states and around the world in New Zealand, Iran and Slovakia.
“It is completely unnecessary to teach our children that animals are commodities to be used for our entertainment,” one user commented. “Teach our children compassion instead. Fundraise without harm.”
Niccum said he’s happy to see so much positive feedback and that he shrugs off the negative personal comments.
“If you want to bring change, you have to speak up about it,” he said. “I just want (the fundraiser) to stop.”
This story was originally published April 26, 2019 at 10:01 AM.
.jpg)
