Their Music Is A Donkey Serenade -- Onalaska Couple Gives Up Modern Amenities To Save Wild, Tame Burros

ONALASKA, Wash. - Gene and Diana Chontos live under the same roof with 20 wild and domestic burros.

They have no television, but they have a phone and a generator. They use an outhouse as their bathroom, and collect rain water for drinking.

The Chontoses' down-to-basics lifestyle northeast of Toledo provides them with the essentials, but many people would feel deprived.

"When friends spend the night, we tell them to be prepared for luxury camping," said Diana, 38.

They say the sacrifices they make are worthwhile because they're saving scraggly domestic and wild burros from death - and living under the same roof with them.

On the other side of the only wall is the airy barn for their woolly charges, who have names such as Honeysuckle, Mocha Man, Echo and Amadeus.

The lucky wild burros, rescued from slaughter in Nevada, have found a safe haven at the end of Burnt Ridge Road east of Onalaska, eight miles east of Interstate 5.

The 14 Nevada burros joined six previously adopted residents of Wild Burro Rescue, a shoestring operation owned by the Chontoses since 1990.

Gene Chontos, 56, who has a master's degree in criminology, quit his job in Olympia working with troubled youths, and he and his wife bought 42 acres in Lewis County, Diana's home turf.

"Our mission is to educate the public," said Gene, who sends out a newsletter and writes in a quarterly publication, the Brayer.

They live on $580 a month - money collected from the sale of their Olympia home.

They spend much of it correcting damaged hoofs, purchasing de-worming medicine and providing nutrition.

"We've gone through most of our savings," Gene said. "And we're so busy, we haven't had time to fund-raise."

The burros devour five or six bales of hay per day, bananas, which provide potassium, and carrots.

Gene just purchased 23 tons of hay - 1,100 bales - that will last seven to eight months. Worming medicine costs $400 a year and a farrier from Madras, Ore., trims and corrects their hoofs.

The Chontoses accept in-kind donations of food or hands-on help and now have three volunteers from Longview who clean out stalls and brush the woolly creatures.

Despite their captivity, the wild burros haven't lost their natural instincts.

"The adults still teach their babies to search for rattlesnakes in the hay before eating," said Diana, who has a degree in abnormal psychology and art therapy.

The Chontoses grew concerned for the welfare of the Southwest's free-roaming wild burros after learning about their plight during a two-year wilderness trip in Northern California.

"We were on our way to New Mexico when we heard about a herd of wild burros awaiting slaughter," Gene said. "We couldn't walk away and let them die. The National Park Service just shoots them."

Rangers in Death Valley National Park in California shoot about 40 burros each year, said Terral King, wild-horse and burro specialist for the Bureau of Land Management in California. He said the shooting is necessary because of overpopulation of the burros, which can be found on Indian reservations and military and wildlife reserves.

"If it was the end of the Earth, there would be cockroaches, possums and burros left," King said.

The BLM and U.S. Forest Service also let people adopt the animals.

"In some states, we have a large waiting list of 400," King said. Just this year people in California adopted 600 wild horses and 100 burros.

The Chontoses are among the people adopting the wild burros. They nurse the animals back to health. They have some domestic burros available for adoption. Adoptive families must provide a field fenced with wood or wire, proper food, lots of love, a companion animal and shelter.

Nearly 150 years ago, miners used burros as pack animals during the Gold Rush because of their ability to go without water for up to three days.

Today, burros are used on sheep ranches to reduce coyote populations, as pack animals on narrow mountain trails and as pets.

Karen Franzen of Longview used to raise miniature burros.

"I can see why the miners got so attached to them," she said, calling them lovable and loyal. "The otherwise gentle animal may kick and bite coyotes to death to protect sheep or a calf."

This fall, Gene will travel to California to monitor a joint roundup of burros by Park Service and BLM rangers.

"It's almost like the last chance to save the wild ass," said Diana.