Donkeys are great pets. They will protect your horses, goats, sheep, alpacas from dogs and coyotes. for that alone, they deserve a home. and they are fun, thrifty and have the best voice of all animals.

Many many years ago, i owned a horse and a donkey. A friend's parents agreed to let our horse and donkey share their pasture for a few months; they had expensive arabian horses. They were embarrassed to have a common donkey on their pasture, but they tolerated it, since we were friends of their daughter.
One day; a friend of ours drove by and stopped to say hello. As she got out of her car, her three large doberman pincers (sp?) jumped out of her car and ran after the horses. the horses all put their tails up and ran off, but the donkey charged the dogs and chased them yipping right out of the pasture. we didn't have to pay rent after that. the dogs would have drove those horses right through the fence.