"After a Preston Hollow, Texas, neighbor complained that his son’s pet donkey was a loud nuisance, Dallas lawyer C. Gregory Shamoun brought the donkey, known as Buddy, into a courtroom on Wednesday to attempt to prove to a jury that the burro’s not. When the suit went to trial on Wednesday, Buddy was the first witness.
Although Buddy clearly couldn’t testify, Shamoun says he wanted the jury to see that Buddy is his 7-year-old son’s well-behaved pet.
Cantrell’s attorney, Chandler, confirms that Buddy wasn’t noisy in the courtroom.
"The donkey did behave. It was a nice donkey, as donkeys go, I suppose," says Chandler, of Chandler & Chandler in Dallas.
Seider says he allowed Buddy to appear in court as a witness, because Cantrell had pleaded in his counterclaim that Buddy was a nuisance.
"He behaved perfectly. They led him in, and the jury observed him for a minute or two, and then he went peaceably away," Seider says, adding that Shamoun assured him that if Buddy made a mess in the courtroom, he would clean it up. "