Trees fallen at White Barn Fun Farm with two animals underneath. (Photo: White Barn Fun Farm)

By Jesse Gill

Brooks farm family devastated after loss of camel and pony in storm

Aug 22, 2025 | 2:44 PM

The storm that travelled through Brooks on Wednesday evening was devastating for many, as it left a path of destruction and even claimed the life of a pair of animals at White Barn Fun Farm.

The animal attraction business northwest of Brooks is not far from the Trans Canada Highway and Highway 36 intersection, where the storm had a noticeable impact.

It’s also the home to owners Denis and Melissa Jackson, who have thousands of annual visitors to the farm.

Melissa said they also go off farm with their animals to a variety of events every year, like the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede, Bow Island Children’s Festival, Rosemary Canada Day, and other locations, including Echo Dale Regional Park.

“We have animals like Tibetan yaks, emus, goats, sheep, ponies, alpacas, llamas, bison, white bison, and the late Stole our camel and the late pony Butterscotch,” Melissa said.

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The Bactrian camel Stole was a five-year-old, while the pony Butterscotch was nine years old.

When the storm hit their farm, Melissa said there was a lot of damage.

“It hit hard enough that we thought it was a tornado, but it was hail and very high winds that wrecked all of our north-facing windows and our south-facing windows and lifted up equipment and tore out trees,” Melissa said.

“We have fences ripped up, animals are mixed together. We have yaks in with alpacas and llamas. We have emus separated. We don’t even know how they got out of their pen,” she added.

“But probably just in the chaos, or I don’t know, but yes, corrals are wrecked, fences are down. It’s pretty messy what we have right now. What we were working on is just cleaning up trees because they’re on fences.”

Two well-rooted and established trees, which Melissa called humongous, tragically ended the life of their pony and camel.

“You could see them from the number one highway. We’re halfway up the range road from the number one highway. Two trees, very big, very old trees. This is a very old farmyard, our house, our barn is almost a hundred years old, and our houses was moved here in the 40s,” Melissa said.

“The animals were taking shelter just east of the barn and or a shelter beside the barn and then when the hail started coming, everybody took off and It was a bit of chaos, and they went to the trees that they normally hide under in storms,” she added.

“Unfortunately for the animals, the two very large old trees were ripped out of the ground and sadly fell on the animals.”

Melissa said that Stoli the camel and Butterscotch the pony were close to each other.

“I think that Stoli just had the odds against him because he was so big, and then Butterscotch would have just been by him because they are best friends,” Melissa said.

“It’s it is very terrible. It’s hard to say it’s comparable to losing a relative like a family member, but they are our family. They trust us so much.”

When they took Stoli to the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede, Melissa said it was only his second time in the livestock trailer.

“He was shaken and nervous to go in the trailer. But he trusted us and he obeyed and did it. He just followed us, even though he was very nervous,” Melissa said.

“He just trusted us and loved us, and that is the hardest part for both Dennis and I is to have that weighing on us that you know, the coulda woulda shouldas, you know,” she added.

“But time was not in our favor. We had literally ten minutes. We thought it was gonna be a beach day. It was that nice out until [we] got the warning, and then 10 minutes later, boom! It’s hail the size of golf balls.”

Melissa added she never could have never guessed it would be that bad, and with the emotional distress they are under, they won’t be coming to Echo Dale Regional Park near Medicine Hat this Saturday as originally planned.

“We are contractors for the City of Medicine Hat for Echo Dale Farm, and we were scheduled to do a corn fest this Saturday,” Melissa said.

“Unfortunately, it’s just not possible for us to perform such an event under this stress that we’re in, so that is cancelled.”

White Barn Fun Farm, a family business with a season of April to October each year, has operated for seven years.

“We have no employees, we just have a couple of volunteers,” Melissa said.

“We’ve been encouraged by some of our family and friends and visitors to start a GoFundMe to help fast-track the repairs and maintenance and whatnot,” she added.

“We have farm insurance, livestock insurance is a little separate and not very easy to get, so we do not have that for animals.”

A GoFundMe was set up for White Barn Fun Farm on Thursday afternoon, and by Friday morning, it had already raised $7,230.

In a post from the business’s social media page on Thursday, they said they appreciate everyone who has lifted them up with prayers, messages, and kindness as they lay their beloved pets to rest.

White Barn Fun Farm also put out a call for help on Friday morning, organizing cleanup from the storm over the weekend, but is only accepting a necessary amount of support.

Tasks include tree cleanup, yard cleanup and fence repair.

READ MORE: Storm through Brooks area causes damage Wednesday night