Pick up a furry friend at the BLM’s Burro Palooza in Marana & Willcox

Interested parties can bring home their own wild burro, trained by an inmate from the Arizona Department of Corrections, in a Mad Libs-brought-to-life at the Bureau of Land Management’s Burro Palooza beginning March 1.

Snag one of the stocky steeds for your homestead at adoption events on March 1-2 in Marana and March 4-5 in Willcox. Adopters must be over 18 with BLM-vetted facilities for the animal to live, and should bring with them an approved trailer to transport their new diminutive companion home from the event.

A burro — the Spanish word for donkey — is a “small but hardy” animal, capable of surviving in extreme desert environments, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Burros first came to the United States with Spanish missionaries in the 1500s and were used later by miners during the Gold Rush of the 1800s. Many of those animals were abandoned, and their descendants roam free in parts of the American Southwest, breeding uninhibitedly and often overpopulating the landscape.

“When populations are high, we see increased resource damage, which means damage to the plants, the ground, and (in) drought conditions, there’s limited water available for them. So we end up seeing them become not as healthy, herd-wise,” said Arizona BLM spokesperson Dolores Garcia. “By bringing them off the landscape and putting them into private placements, they have a better opportunity.”

A few of the burros available for adoption have been trained by inmates with Arizona Correctional Industries — a division of the Arizona Department of Corrections where inmates can work jobs in manufacturing, construction, and customer service — at the state prison in Florence.

The trained burros can haul carts and respond to reining, and though most of the animals available for adoption at the events will be untrained, it’s not hard to train them yourself, Garcia said.

“They can be quite food-motivated, and if you’re dedicated to working with them, just like any other pet, they can be trained up rather quickly,” she said.

The adoption fee for an untrained burro is $125, while trained burros start at $500. All animals are available on a first-come, first-served basis and have been examined by a veterinarian, vaccinated, dewormed, and cleared with a negative Coggins test, the agency said. The list of available animals will be posted on the BLM’s Facebook page ahead of the event.

Burros are sweet, thoughtful animals, Garcia said, and can make faithful friends when living on a farm or a ranch.

“I prefer them to horses. Honestly, to me, they’re more pensive, insightful,” she said. “A lot of the time they can be like a big dog. I find them more intelligent than some dogs, too.”

The animals have a bad rap for being a little stubborn, she added, but maybe they’re just judicious with their time and energy.

“People think that they’re going to have to pull these burros along, or they won’t want to move,” Garcia said. “But once you give them a reason, a good reason, and they think about it a little bit, they’re actually great companions.”

Adoption events will be held in Marana at the Marana Heritage Center on March 1-2 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and in Willcox at Quail Park on March 4 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and March 5 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Interested adopters can apply ahead of time on the BLM’s website.