Uxbridge (Canada) (AFP)
Become a star on Zoom with his surprise - and paying - irruptions in the middle of videoconferences, a donkey helped to bail out the finances of a farm animal shelter in Canada, deserted from its visitors because of coronavirus.
"Hello", launches a volunteer from the shelter, Tim Fors, presenting to a few people gathered for a videoconference on the Zoom application an unexpected guest: a donkey with gray and white coat, Buckwheat (buckwheat, in French).
At the four corners of the screen, it is the general astonishment: tender "ah" and "oh" fuse.
"We are embedded in your meeting, I present Buckwheat to you, Buckwheat is a famous clapper of meeting inlays", said Tim Fors to them, causing giggles.
"Buckwheat becomes involved in meetings at the request of people to make money, it is a way to raise funds to feed the cows, especially during the Covid," said Tim Fors at AFP.
Until the arrival of the pandemic in Canada in mid-March, the "Farmhouse Garden Animal Home" refuge depended mainly on donations from visitors and activities organized on site to ensure the survival of its menagerie.
The refuge, located in Uxbridge, Ontario, 75 km northeast of Toronto, is a former cattle ranch.
- 75 dollars for 10 minutes -
"About 4 years ago, Mike Lanigan, the owner, a third generation breeder from the same family, had a change of vocation and decided that he would never send his cows to the slaughter again", says Mr. Fors.
The refuge now houses around twenty cows, chickens, ducks, a horse and Buckwheat, the donkey who was born there twelve years ago.
Faced with the scale of the crisis which threatened the survival of the refuge, its officials quickly felt the need to find new sources of funding.
Hence the idea of bringing the animals to the screen so that they can keep the company of the participants and relax the atmosphere in the work meetings by videoconference that exploded during the pandemic.
A form on the refuge's website allows you to book the services of Buckwheat, Melody the horse or even Victoria, "the matriarch of the herd" of cows.
It costs 75 Canadian dollars (49 euros) for a 10-minute animal presence during a videoconference, 125 dollars for 20 minutes and 175 dollars for half an hour, explains Edith Barabash, co-founder of the shelter, at Toronto Life Magazine.
"We are happy to see people in meetings surprised, they are always very surprised when they see a donkey appear," adds Mr. Fors. "We started around the end of April and I think we have had a hundred meetings and sometimes we invite ourselves to three to four meetings a day."
"When the Covid is over, I hope you come see us one of these days," said Tim Fors, speaking to the participants. "Certainly," replied one of them enthusiastically.
© 2020 AFP