The coronavirus pandemic has led millions of people to embrace meetings via Zoom, but admittedly, those can be as tedious as in-person conferences.
So one animal sanctuary in Canada, in dire need of cash after being forced to close to visitors, found a way to solve both problems.
Meet Buckwheat, a donkey at the Farmhouse Garden Animal Home, who is ready to inject some fun into your humdrum work-from-home office da—for a price.
“Hello. We are crashing your meeting, we are crashing your meeting-—this is Buckwheat,” says sanctuary volunteer Tim Fors, introducing the gray and white animal on a Zoom call.
In the video application’s signature window panes, the call attendees offer some oohs and aahs as they realize what’s happening—and then erupt in laughter.
“Buckwheat is crashing people’s meetings in order to make some money,” Fors tells AFP.
“They donate to the sanctuary when they want her to crash a meeting, so it’s mostly a fundraiser so we can feed the cows, especially during COVID.”
The Farmhouse Garden Animal home in Uxbridge, about an hour’s drive northeast of Toronto, used to rely on visitor donations and paid on-site activities to make ends meet.
But since the pandemic erupted in mid-March, the former cattle ranch can no longer welcome outsiders, putting a serious dent in its finances.
On the sanctuary’s website, interested parties can fill out a form to hire Buckwheat, Melody the horse or Victoria, whom Fors calls the “matriarch of the herd.”
A 10-minute Zoom appearance costs $55.