Heather Wright/The Independent

Meghan Clarke has loved camels since she was a little girl.

“We would go to the Toronto Zoo every year and they had camel rides at that time… I would beg my parents, literally, to go and go again and again and again. And one year, because they have sponsored the animals at the zoo down there…I adopted a camel, and his name was Casey, and so I just fell in love with them, like they’re just so amazing.”

Flash forward several decades and you’ll find Clarke on her Enniskillen Township hobby farm with Simon, her very own camel.

About two years ago, a friend who knew Clarke’s love of camels called to tell her a zoo in Quebec had been closed down because of the maltreatment of the animals. The creditors had a camel for sale.

So, without going to look, Clarke jumped at the chance. It took some time, but Simon arrived by trailer to his new home on Petrolia Line in late 2024. Clarke was excited when he rolled in and then stunned.

“My jaw hit the floor and my heart broke, because I saw how thin he was,” Clarke tells The Independent.
Simon didn’t have the trademark camel’s hump; his body had used all the fat stored in it to survive the brutal conditions he lived in. “When he got here, he was so thin that he laid down, and he couldn’t even get up for three days.”

Simon, who stands 7’3”, was also nervous around people. Clarke figured he had been physically abused at the zoo.

Looking at the nine-year-old camel now, you’d never know it had a rough life. Simon is furry, stands tall, and waits patiently while Clarke speaks to people who stop by to see him.

But it’s taken a while to get Simon to this point. Clarke has “taken in strays” for years. Her first pet was a stray dog. She’s also taken in horses from rescue operations. There is a turkey and potbellied pig as well as ducks and various types of chicken wandering around the yard.

Clarke says she’s determined to give the animal the best care possible so she is learning as much as she can about camels, including going to seminars which teach camel husbandry.

Clarke has found vets from across North America who give her advice and she’s learned to clip his massive hooves.

Clarke is training Simon. He’ll stand quietly, occasionally bellowing out to his horse friends in the field. He’ll back up and lay down and recently, Clarke’s daughter had a brief ride on his back.

Simon has drawn some curious looks from people passing by. Cars often stop on the side of the road to check to make sure they really saw a camel. And Clarke has just recently started hosting meet and greets, in part, to help pay for Simon’s $900 a month feed and nutrition bills.

Despite the expense, it’s clear Clarke and Simon have a special relationship. “It is literally like having a child, a big, hairy child,” she says laughing. Clark says camels have a lot of great qualities.
“They’re so intelligent, and they’re so sweet and kind and loving.”

Clarke says they are “really amazing too, because of how they can adapt and function in the world being able to thrive in cold climates and hot climates– it doesn’t matter – in arid places where they don’t have any water, where they get really wet…they’re survivors,” Clarke says.

Now that Simon is used to people – he loves kids, Clarke says – she plans to bring him to parades in Petrolia and Sarnia so everyone can get a look at him.

Clarke plans to have him in the Petrolia Canada Day Parade, if organizers will allow it.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was editted May 27, 2026 to correct the spelling of Meghan Clarke’s name.