A rural Oregon woman filed a $49,500 lawsuit last week after she said a donkey walking along Main Street in her tiny town bit her in the thigh, prompting surgery and leaving her with “a significant scar from the attack.”

Kelsie Chandler says in her lawsuit that she was walking through the center of Mitchell, population 137, when she spotted the donkey on the loose in April 2024. The suit states that when she tried to secure the animal and return it to its owner, the animal attacked her by biting her on her thigh.

Geordie Duckler, a Portland attorney who specializes in animal law and filed the lawsuit on behalf of Chandler, said he has represented clients in an estimated 350 animal bite cases during his 37-year career and this is his first case over a donkey biting a person. The vast majority have been over dog bites, though he also has handled cases of cats, parrots and horses biting or scratching people, he said.

Mitchell is located southeast of the Painted Hills of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Wheeler County, the least populous of Oregon’s 36 counties.

The suit lists veterinarian Jacob Crawford and an unnamed person as the donkey’s owners and defendants in the lawsuit. The suit also names as a defendant Crawford’s business, Powell Butte Veterinary Service, which is located southeast of Redmond and provides mobile care to large animals in the region.

Crawford told The Oregonian/OregonLive Monday that the donkey, named “Hiway” and pronounced like “highway,” was a well known fixture of Mitchell. Crawford said he’d owned Hiway since 2010 and used to bring him to area residents’ yards to “eat down” the grass and brush.

And even though Crawford said he had a sign up warning people not to feed Hiway, locals would still sneak him food through his fenced enclosure at the home Crawford shares with his girlfriend.

The lawsuit alleges that the donkey had previously “attacked, bitten, injured and/or acted aggressively toward others” but the owners had failed to keep it confined or warn others that it was a danger.

Crawford, however, said Hiway was gentle and good with kids.

“He’s a 30-year-old donkey,” Crawford said. “He’s never done anything aggressive toward anybody.”

Crawford said he ultimately gave the donkey to an elderly woman who wanted him, but she changed her mind after about a year. Crawford said that’s when his girlfriend decided she was willing to take ownership and the donkey returned to their yard.

Crawford said on the day Chandler said Hiway bit her, he believes the donkey got out because some neighborhood dogs that were running around pushed through the fence, allowing Hiway to roam free.

Hiway now lives in a pasture far from town, Crawford said.

“He was really loved in this town, so …this whole thing has been really disappointing,” Crawford said.

The suit states that in addition to surgery, Chandler also received painkillers and antibiotic injections to treat her wound.

The suit was filed in Wheeler County Circuit Court.