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Rebel Clayton was starting fifth grade in Wikioop, Arizona.

Her school was tiny, just three teachers for the entire building. So it's a little dirt road that goes to our little school, and there's only about like 35 kids in it.

This was 1980. No internet, barely any computers, but our teachers had ways of keeping students connected.

We get the weekly readers, which are like little two-page newspapers that would have like the news from the times with a big picture.

Rebels teacher passed out that week's issue.

And that was my dad with a baby burrow.

A baby burrow.

Now, for those of you who don't know what that is, it's another name for a donkey.

In the photo, Rebel's dad is sitting on a horse. The baby burrow is draped across his saddle.

And behind him, the steep walls of the Grand Canyon and a helicopter hovering above.

It is an epic shot. One that also landed in the New York Times.

And I was like, oh my word, the whole United States is getting this picture of this.

It was just a weird thing knowing this was my life.

This photo, this weird thing, Rebel experienced, people have called it the toughest animal rescue of the century.

It hinged on a Vietnam war pilot, a whole bunch of A-list celebrities, and a crazy plan to save some 500 burrows from death.

But whether this rescue was worth it, well, that's a more complicated story.

There's plenty of adequate protection for these animals.

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