 In 1996, Debbie Hamilton, an American, founded the Hamilton Rare Breeds Foundation on a farm in Hartland, Vermont, to breed Poitou donkeys.As of 2004, she owned 26 purebred and 14 partbred Poitous, making hers the largest Poitou breeding operation in the United States, and the second largest in the world, behind the French government-sponsored experimental farm.Hamilton works with French officials toward the preservation of the breed, and has received praise from French veterinarians, who appreciate her technical and financial contributions to the breed.