Advertisement Donkey gives birth at Vermont High School Ester gave birth Tuesday morning, live-streamed internationally Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Missisquoi Valley Union High School students will have a new classmate when they return from winter break. The agriculture department's donkey, Ester, gave birth to a healthy foal at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. Ester and new addition, Evie, are part of the animal science class, taught by James Messier. He said it's offered to MVUHS students, and it's the only tech program in Vermont with live animals on campus. He said it's an important tool in teaching responsibility. "For students to realize that even though they're on vacation, these animals have to be taken care of, and they do realize that," Messier said. This school year, Messier set up a live-stream to share Ester's progress. He it was amazing how many people were tuning in, from Oregon to Australia. Watch the live-stream here. Although it was just an experiment, he hopes to put webcams in all the stalls of the barn so people across the world can continue to watch and learn, just like the students. "Most of the people don't live on farms anymore," Messier said. "They don't have the background. They don't know what to expect, so one of the things that I'm trying to achieve is to expose them to something like Evie." Messier hopes to get more cameras installed soon because his sheep may be about to give birth, too.