By Breven Honda

The Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue organization is home to preserving the donkey wildlife all across the United States.

Including Mesquite, donkey conservation has been important to Steve Meyers, who is the Western States Regional Manager for the organization.

The organization’s mission is to “provide a safe and loving environment to all donkeys that have been abused, neglected or abandoned and wild burros under threat of destruction.” 

Meyers has also begun to take over the Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue organization from his parents.

“I grew up on the rescue and then, probably in the last two years, started taking on bigger and bigger roles for the rescue and then I recently stepped in to fill the regional manager shoes,” Meyers said of the company his father, Mark, and stepmother, Amy, began about 25 years ago.

For Meyers himself, taking on the reins of the organization meant leaving his construction job.

He said his job to save donkeys was a risk that he was willing to take, especially for his father.

“It’s just been so rewarding. I’m much happier,” Meyers said of switching jobs. “I get to do something that I’m passionate about, that I care about. Like I said, I get to help preserve my father’s legacy. So couldn’t ask for a better career change.”

Mesquite is one of 53 locations for the PVDR as there have a have nearly 3,800 donkeys under their care, while rescuing 675 donkeys in 2023 alone. The PVDR works throughout the lower 48 as it manages 5.5 million acres of wild donkey habitat.

As a result, it has become the world’s leading donkey rescue organization.

Meyers said none of this would be possible with the efforts of his father, who remains in the organization as the executive director.

“This is this is my father’s legacy,” Meyers said. “If I was standing around my employees right now, they’d be rolling their eyes because I’ve said this ad nauseam. This organization is my father’s debt that he will leave on the world. It’ll be here long after he’s gone. So, it’s very important to me to continue his life’s work.”

After their work they have done all over the country, it was Meyers’ father who wanted to build and have a donkey museum in Mesquite, which opened in November of 2022.

Meyers said his father enjoyed Mesquite because of its unique topography and the opportunity for couples and families to stop at the museum.

“My father liked the overall pace of the town, plus with its proximity to the ranch that we have there and scenic,” Meyers said. “Where it is, geographically, is really great. We get the traffic from Utah into Vegas from Vegas into Utah. So, it’s been very successful because of that we also because it’s a retirement community.”

That community also includes the military veterans living in town, which is a second reason Meyers’ father enjoyed Mesquite.

He said the military community, as well as the people in Mesquite as a whole led to having a piece of them in the donkey museum.

“We really wanted to have the war gallery be a focal point of the museum, so that’s been really successful and really helpful for us,” Meyers said. “We hound every veteran that comes in to fill out one of the cards that we put on a bulletin board. We’ve actually filled it up so much that we recently purchased a second bulletin board so that we could fill that one up as well.

“We respect and love the veteran community very much and just the overall community of Mesquite in general.”

Last month, the Donkey History Museum in Mesquite hosted the 10th annual Donkey Jamboree in a community involved event.

The Mesquite Café Blues Band provided the music, there was fun for the entire family as the museum was filled with people so much that was only available for standing room only.

People had the opportunity to see donkeys, tour the museum as well as meet Meyers’ parents.

Meyers said their jamboree was a successful event, despite inclement weather.

“The turnout was incredible. I mean, it was packed,” Meyers said. “The donations that we made that day had a serious impact. It was great to see that people were still willing to come out and support us, even with the bad weather. We had people come from all over the country just to come out for the jamboree.”

This was the 10th jamboree event for the organization, marking a new milestone.

It has reached the point where the expectations are set when putting on an event like the jamboree, no matter the location.

“We recognize that it’s become something that’s expected by the local communities for us to have the jamboree,” Meyers said. “It’s important to us that we always put our best foot forward when holding the jamboree.”

Meyers added that reaching Jamboree No. 10 also means having that optimism for the future of the museum and donkey conservation.

“It means that we’re treading in the right direction, that we’re doing things the right way,” Meyers said. “It’s a great feeling to know that the community supports us and that they believe in the mission. The more people we can get to believe in the mission, the more people we can get involved, the more mouths we can feed. The more money we can put into caring for these creatures have given so much to Americana.

“These creatures are very Zen and stoic to be around, so it’s a blessing.”