The donkeys haul hundreds of fat tourists, making four or five return journeys up 520 wide, cobbled steps on a cliff-side path that leads to the town. If the donkeys don't move they are whipped.
BRIDIE PEARSON-JONES: ‘Shocking footage shows donkeys on the idyllic Greek island of Santorini being whipped as they carry overweight tourists up 500 steps. A clip released by activist group PETA shows donkeys and mules being used as taxis to haul heavy holiday-makers up the island’s picturesque cobblestones. Harrowing video of mistreated animals shows flies crawling over open sores caused by poorly fitting saddles and a handler striking one of the creatures with a stick and violently yanking at its reins.
It comes as the animal rights group accuses officials of being in ‘clear breach’ of Greek animal welfare laws by ‘denying the animals water or a place to cool down’… The donkeys, who are decorated with bright coloured beads and jingling bells, haul hundreds of tourists up a steep paths… If the donkeys don’t move they are whipped, shocking footage shows…
The animals make four or five return journeys up 520 wide, cobbled steps on the cliff-side path that leads to the town of Fira. The plight of the donkeys, which are marched from fields at dawn in temperatures regularly more than 86F (30C) has been labelled ‘Santorini’s grubby little secret’. In recent years there has been an increase in donkeys suffering spinal injuries, saddle sores and exhaustion. Many of them who become too exhausted to ride are left out to die, according to Peta…
Up to 17,000 holiday-makers arrive at the port each day from cruise ships, and demand for the donkey rides has increased. The animals who walk up in lines of two to ten, offload at a ‘donkey station’ just before the summit of the steps and then return for their next load, often bumping into walkers or squeezing them into walls that look over steep drops…
More than 108,000 people signed an online petition last summer deploring what it described as the ‘mindless and unnecessary torture [of equines]’ used by tourists to ride the steps. There was further anger when pictures were posted on social media of the overweight tourists riding donkeys up the steps’. SOURCE…
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