PETA Offers Electric Tuk-Tuk to Mijas Mayor, Calls For Ban on Donkey Rides

02.09.2024

Mijas, Spain – After – PETA sent a letter calling on the mayor of Mijas, Ana Carmen Mata Rico, to end the use of donkeys and other equines for tourist rides and offering to provide Mijas with its first electric tuk-tuk. Other animal rights organisations, including Free Mijas Donkeys and Horses and PACMA (the Animal Rights Party Against Animal Mistreatment), have also taken action over the abuse of donkeys in Mijas by holding protests and filing official complaints.

“Treating donkeys like living taxis and forcing them to pull heavy carriages during record-setting heat is not only cruel but also completely unnecessary,” says PETA Vice President for Europe Mimi Bekhechi. “PETA urges the mayor of Mijas to retire these long-suffering donkeys and other equines and replace them with modern, electric tuk-tuks, starting with the one PETA stands ready to provide.”

In its letter, the group points out that forcing donkeys to carry humans and their luggage can strain their backs and joints and puts them at risk of collapsing or even dying in extreme heat. Donkeys used in the tourist trade frequently suffer from painful abrasions and wounds due to ill-fitting tack and are beaten with sticks by handlers and denied essentials like rest and water. Once their handlers decide they are no longer useful, most donkeys end up at a slaughterhouse.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.

Contact:

Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]

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