Last of Escaped Zebras Captured With White Bread, Oats and ‘Positivity’
A zebra named Sugar was captured on Friday after being on the loose in Washington State for nearly a week.


A zebra named Sugar was the last of four to have been captured, after the quartet escaped from a trailer in North Bend, Wash., in late April. Regional Animal Services of King County

By Emmett Lindner
May 4, 2024

The last of four zebras that escaped from a trailer in North Bend, Wash., was safely corralled on Friday with the help of a former rodeo bullfighter, a lookout on a mountain bike and a package of white bread. ... The zebra, named Sugar, had been wandering the grounds of a 300-acre property in an unincorporated area of King County since it had broken free from a trailer on a highway exit off Interstate 90, about 30 miles east of Seattle, on April 28.

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Among those who helped in the initial capture of three zebras was David Danton, 52, a former rodeo clown and bullfighter, who had been driving nearby with his wife and decided to assist in the rescue. ... {The zebra's owner, Kristine Keltgen, who runs a petting zoo in Anaconda, Montana,} recalled his efforts to build makeshift gates out of rope and panels, and she asked if he would return to the North Bend area from his home in Mount Vernon, Wash. ... This wasn’t Mr. Danton’s first time in the saddle. ... He has wrangled buffalo, untamed Arabian racehorses, cattle and high-priced goats. He raised rodeo stock for 30 years, and his wife, Julie Danton, works as a horse trainer. ... He began to formulate a plan and organized a team of four people whom he could trust to remain calm and even-tempered around the potentially skittish animal.

There are two ways to capture a zebra, Mr. Danton said. ... One is to tranquilize the animal, which he opposed without knowing how Sugar would react to the drug. That left the second option, which involved building increasingly smaller pens around the animal until there would be just enough space to direct her into a trailer. {snip} Ms. Keltgen had said that the zebra’s favorite treat was white bread, so Mr. Danton got half a loaf of Grandma Sycamore’s Home Maid from the property owner and began crinkling the wrapper. Sugar’s ears perked up, and she began to follow Mr. Danton into the enclosure. ... After placing hay and oats in the middle of the pasture to distract and calm Sugar, the team built a corral out of steel panels and rope that they could pull in to shrink the size of the fence.

Mr. Danton and his team eventually created a small-enough pen to readily lead Sugar through a 24-foot-long alleyway that he had erected and made to end at a trailer. ... “They did a kind of dragnet, smaller and smaller to guide her into the trailer, and she was hauled off right after 10 o’clock,” said Cameron Satterfield, a spokesman for the Regional Animal Services of King County. “This could not have ended any better than it did.” ... And with that, the zebra was on her way home. Mr. Danton and his wife drove Sugar in a trailer to Montana on Saturday. ... “Life is about the power of positivity,” Mr. Danton said. “If you think you can do something, the likelihood of you doing it goes way up.”

Emmett Lindner writes about breaking and trending news. He has written about international protests, climate change and social media influencers. More about Emmett Lindner