Boyett’s Grove employee attacked by half zebra, half donkey
Spring Lake –
Boyett’s Grove markets itself as a tourist site that allows people to get up close and personal with exotic animals.
One employee got too close Saturday.
James Oleson, 34, was painting the perimeter fence close to where a zebra-donkey hybrid – known as a zedonk – was eating. Behind him was another fence that enclosed the animal’s grazing area.
The zedonk ducked its head underneath the enclosure fence and bit Oleson on the foot, said his mother, Kathy Oleson, one of the co-owners.
The zedonk knocked over James Oleson and kept biting him on the lower legs. He called for help and eventually got away after crawling under the perimeter fence, his mother said.
Oleson declined an ambulance transport, but his mother drove him to a local hospital where he was given a tetanus shot and was released, she said.
“It wasn’t really much,” she said of her son’s injuries. “There were no stitches, just some cuts and bruises.”
The zedonk is being quarantined at Boyett’s Grove and will remain isolated for 14 days, Kathy Oleson said.
A call to Hernando County Animal Services was not returned Tuesday.
The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office was called shortly after 11:30 a.m. to Boyett’s Grove, located at 4355 Spring Lake Highway near Brooksville, after reports of people yelling behind the main building, deputies said.
Kathy Oleson said she was screaming for the people to leave the area. They flocked to where the animal was biting her son after they heard him yell for help, she said.
“I didn’t want anyone to get close to him because he really looked agitated,” she said of the zedonk. “They came over to assist my son.”
The business remained closed for the rest of the day, deputies said.
One of the animal’s bites broke the skin on James Oleson, which was why he was given a shot, his mother said.
She could not say how much the zedonk weighs, but said it resembles a small horse in size.
“He was a little shaken that first day,” Kathy Oleson said of her son.
Boyett’s Grove is a citrus attraction where fruit is washed, sorted and packed by the barrel. It is reminiscent of how the citrus industry in Florida would package and sell its fruit a half-century ago, according to its Web site.
The tourist center doubles as a roadside animal attraction that includes exotic birds, monkeys, alligators, pigs and deer.
Boyett’s Grove made headlines in April 2007 after co-owner Jim Oleson, Kathy’s husband and James’ father, was shot and seriously wounded during a robbery.
One of the three suspects, Elijah Montgomery, was arrested and is awaiting trial in Hernando County.
Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or [email protected]
