By Adam Woodward • Updated: 23 Aug 2024 • 9:34 • 2 minutes read
Anti-donkey-ride protestors gather in Mijas
60 protestors turned up to the centre of Mijas Pueblo August 22 to protest against the use of donkeys as tourist rides.
Most wore white and carried banners and placards while a relatively large and curious contingent of press, both local and international, gathered with their cameras.
The protest was sparked when video footage went viral online weeks before of a donkey collapsing with what appeared to be exhaustion. Measures brought in by Mijas council limiting the times the donkey rides can operate were not respected over the last weekend when despite an orange warning issued by the national meteorological office, went ignored.
To compound tensions, a British tourist who is said to have been recording the donkeys and who some have accused of having entered a forbidden stable area below the donkey taxi rank, refused to stop filming one of the donkey carriage drivers when asked to. The situation ended up in the donkey ride operator physically attacking the tourist and subsequently being arrested.
On the day of the protest, the donkey owners continued offering rides to tourists, one telling the Euro Weekly News ‘they always come here trying to take the worst pictures of us, never when the donkeys are drinking or resting.’ Another told us that the disagreements and protests are nothing new and have been going on sporadically for 60 years. One young man and his donkey told us that if they were to take away their licenses to operate, all of the donkeys would have to be sent off to the abattoir because they would be too expensive to keep as pets.
As the demonstrators began chanting their message, they were met with a noisier counter-protest of an equal number of people made up of locals from Mijas. Their chants were less pacific and mostly consisted of the word ‘fuera!’ One told us ‘This is our town, our country, our culture.’ Others complained to police officers that the animal activists had not obtained permission from the police to protest, when the counter protest had.
The counter protestors then booked out all of the horse-drawn carriages and went on a route around the mountain town chanting ‘This is our business, mind your own.’ (In Spanish of course). Both sides came to the centre of Mijas to deliver their messages, and the donkey rides continue.
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Passionate about music, food and the arts. After being completely immersed in the Spanish way of life for 25 years, I now share my knowhow and experience with you.
So the counter protest to a protest wanting an end to cruelty to animals is to say mind your own business. How wonderfully informed and progressive and what a great advert for Spanish hospitality……
I have lived in the area for 4 years and I have never seen any evidence of animal cruelty here, or anywhere else I have lived in Spain. I think that tourists and ex pats have a tendency to accuse the Spanish of all sorts of bad stuff, because they are too lazy to learn the language or engage with the people. What this really amounts to a form of superiority otherwise known as racism. I am glad to see the local people standing up for their town, traditions and culture. Those who don’t like Spain should go back to their dull dreary homelands.
Really are you blind? I have been in Spain 12 years and a great deal of my time as been spent helping numerous street dogs and cats from the terrible situation they are in most of the shelters and sanctuaries I’m said to say are not run by Spanish people.. Animal abuse should not be called culture..
You are so right here!!!
Common situation everywhere, import a protest to somewhere it is not wanted.
Plenty of animal cruelty in Mallorca! Domestic animals, bull fighting, horse & donkeys used for tourists in very hot weather, farmers butchering animals by slitting their throats while hanging by their back feet. Seen it all and find these habits disgusting.
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