Donkey who served as a model for Eddie Murphy's “Shrek” character dies

It's a sad day in the animal acting world.

Perry, the donkey who served as a model for Donkey, the character voiced by Eddie Murphy in the Shrek films, has died. He was 30.

Perry's death was confirmed by The Barron Park Donkey Project, the volunteer-run pasture in Palo Alto, Calf., that he called home for 27 years.

"We are heartbroken to share that our beloved Barron Park donkey, Perry, passed away yesterday at the age of 30," the organization wrote on Instagram on Friday. "He was a beloved member of our community and we know many people will be touched by his passing. Memorial plans will be announced soon."

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"We are all filled with sadness at his passing, but in the last weeks he was in pain and was suffering increasingly from a condition known as laminitis which is not curable," the post continued. "In his last weeks, all of the handlers spent many hours at the pasture with him, petting him, cradling him, singing to him, and telling him that was and always will be loved."

Jenny Kiratli, one of Perry's handlers at Barron Park, told PEOPLE that Perry "was a part of the whole community, and everyone is mourning for him. So many people knew him... So many children came by all the time to see [him]. They don't know he's the Shrek donkey. They just know he's a little, fuzzy animal who they love to pet."

Perry was brought to Barron Park in 1997 to be a "calming influence" for polo ponies, but as his bio on the Barron Park website details, "instead of calming them, he nipped at them!"

Animators from the computer animation production company Pacific Data Images visited Barron Park in 1999 to observe how donkeys move. Perry became the primary model for the character that would go become the Shrek films' Donkey, whom Eddie Murphy would voice on four occasions.

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Perry is not credited at the end of any Shrek films, but Kiratli "can attest that many of Donkey’s classic head tilts, eye rolls, and bouncy trots were straight from Perry."

Last year saw several high-profile animal actor deaths, including Seven, who portrayed Daryl Dixon's (Norman Reedus) canine companion Dog on The Walking Dead, and Burt, the scaly star of Crocodile Dundee.

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