Book excerpt: The donkey, the onager, the koulan-the burro. All are names for one of the world’s most used and abused beasts of burden. If the horse was the animal of conquest, it was the lowly burro who made it possible for civilization to spread to the far reaches of the earth. Burros brought wood to the fires, raised water from the wells, toiled in the fields, carried the great and the poor, followed the conquistadors to the New World, and packed for the prospector and miner. Recommended by Cleveland Amory, renowned animal welfare advocate and founder of the Black Beauty Ranch, this book is an eloquent and appealing account of the burro’s past and present. It includes a chapter on the selection, feeding, and care of pet burros.