A violent donkey who cost his owner £6,000 after launching violent attacks on pigs and goats is just ”misunderstood and lonely”, his new owner has claimed.
Spanish stallion Paco cost his former owner more than £6,000 after he was convicted for animal neglect and cruelty.
Shocking footage played to magistrates shows Paco grabbing a pig in his jaws and waving it around while it squeals in agony.
Janie Whitson gave Paco a new home to the troubled donkey and renamed him Kevin, after Harry Enfield’s famously grumpy teenage character.
She claimed he was suffering from loneliness when he launched daily attacks on goats and pigs.
She said: ”I was absolutely mortified when I started reading what he’d done in the paper.
”I can’t say he didn’t do all those things because he obviously did but he has never shown any of that behaviour with us.
”He obviously didn’t have very much human contact before and that’s important to donkeys. I think he needed human companionship.
”He’s had a lot of bad press but he’s not a vicious devil and he doesn’t deserve all this criticism. He’s just cheeky but not nasty at all.”
Mrs Whitson is holding Kevin at a secret location to prevent any unwanted attention but keeps him with other animals, including horses, cats and dogs.
Magistrates at Towcester heard last Friday Kevin was neglected by his owner Andrew Harding, 39, of Milton Keynes, Bucks.
He attacked kune kune and Saddleback pigs and a pygmy goat in a rented field in Tiffield, Northants.
Paco was also implicated in the death of a rival donkey called Pablo, who lived in a neighbouring field.
Neighbours told the court they heard squealing coming from the field on a daily basis.
Harding was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and pay costs totalling more than £6,080, by Towcester Magistrates on Friday (16/4).
He had been convicted in March of allowing the attacks and separate animal cruelty charges.
