Beloved donkey who was animation model for Shrek has died at the age of 30

Everywhere Jenny Kiratli goes these days, someone stops her to share their memories of Perry the miniature donkey.

The beloved Palo Alto, Calif., creature — who was the model for Donkey, the iconic character voiced by Eddie Murphy in the animated film Shrek — has died at the ripe old age of 30.

Kiratli, Perry’s lead handler, says the little donkey has been a fixture in the city’s Barron Park neighbourhood for decades, where he has won over hearts of many residents, including adults who have been visiting him since they were just children.

“Everywhere I go in the neighbourhood, I’m stopped by people,” Kiratli told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. “He had a huge impact.”

A fleeting brush with fame

Perry, a miniature donkey, has lived at Cornelis Bol Park since 1997, when his previous owner gave him up. He’s cared for by the non-profit community organization Barron Park Donkey Project, alongside two other donkeys, April and Buddy.

According to his online bio, he was “brought to California to be a calming influence for polo ponies – but instead of calming them, he nipped at them! Thus, Perry needed a new home.”

Kiratli says donkeys are special creatures. They’re gentle and smart, like really big dogs. But Perry, she says, was one of a kind. 

“He really just had a tremendously deep gaze, his very soulful eyes. He would look right at you,” she said. “But he was very funny. He really was a joker.”

In 1999, he had a brush with fame when a group of animators from DreamWorks spent the day watching, filming and drawing Perry at the park. 

The team, led by Canadian-American animator Rex Grignon, was preparing to animate the character Donkey in the first Shrek movie, and used Perry as a visual muse, emulating his moments and expressions.

Grignon first learned about Perry through his wife, who often walked through the park.

“Although we’d already designed Donkey, we wanted to figure out what makes a donkey a donkey, so it was really helpful to watch Perry move,” Grignon told the Washington Post last year for a story about Perry’s 30th birthday. 

“He was very co-operative as the handler walked him around.”

Kiratli says Perry was just five years old at the time, and “very feisty, very bouncy.” 

“I do think that there was quite a bit of our Perry that ended up in Donkey,” she said. 

In his twilight years, Perry suffered a myriad of health problems. Miniature donkeys have a life expectancy of 30-35.

But Grignon, who visited the creature in 2024, told the Post he seemed like the same old Perry he’d met all those years ago  — “a lovely little donkey in a lovely little place.” 

CBC was unable to reach Grignon or DreamWorks for comment.

A neighbourhood of  ‘Perry lovers’

But Kiratli says Perry was so much more than his Shrek connection. He was “a community pet.”

As he got older, his vet bills started racking up, she said, and the community came together to raise money for Perry and his fellow donkeys.

Every Sunday, the handlers walk the donkeys, and locals join along, she said. Countless others stop to visit Perry while passing through the park. 

“Little kids want to pet him and brush him,” she said. “Many, many, many, many community members know Perry and spend a lot of time with him. And they are Shrek lovers, but in this case, they are Perry lovers.”