Animals & Us
The Donkey Whisperer: How a Media Executive Found Joy in an Unexpected Place
Ron King
Ron King left a $506 million media portfolio at 51 to discover that joy and enjoyment are not the same thing.
Kintsugi Studio
Animals & Us
Ron King
Ron King left a $506 million media portfolio at 51 to discover that joy and enjoyment are not the same thing.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
At 51, Ron King walked away from a $506 million media portfolio at Time Inc. to discover something he'd been chasing his whole life without knowing it: the difference between enjoyment and joy. Running seven magazines including InStyle had given him front-row seats at fashion shows in Milan and Paris, first-class travel, and a closet full of Gucci. He enjoyed all of it. But when Time Inc collapsed and he found himself quiet for the first time in years, sitting on a hill in Hopland, California, he realized none of it had brought him joy. Joy, he understood then, came from helping someone else.
Then a TikTok video changed everything. Ron was scrolling through his usual feed of scare pranks and shirtless men when the algorithm served him footage of a woman rescuing donkeys from auction. He learned that six million donkeys a year are slaughtered for their hides, used in a traditional Chinese medicine with no proven benefits. He had a property that was meant to be a farm animal sanctuary. He had resources. He had the skills to build something. Within days, he'd written a business plan and pitched it to Phil Selway, the property owner, over breakfast. By December 5, 2020, three donkeys named Goose, Pickles, and Shadow arrived. Ron fell in love immediately.
Five years later, Oscar's Place has rescued over 400 donkeys. Ron has learned that donkeys are not stubborn or stupid, as cartoons suggest, but intelligent animals that think before they act. They refuse what is unsafe, not out of spite, but out of self-preservation. The hardest part of his work is walking through Texas auction yards knowing he cannot save every donkey and what will happen to the ones he leaves behind. He compartmentalizes that grief by focusing on the animals he does save and the good he is doing every single day. His television series, Donkey King, premieres January 3rd on ABC, telling the stories of individual donkeys and the sanctuary that gave them a second chance.
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