Laurence Dollimore
A BRITISH tourist has vowed to never return to a Costa del Sol resort after witnessing ‘shocking’ animal abuse.
A holidaymaker told the Olive Press today how she saw two donkeys collapse amid 40C temperatures in Mijas Pueblo this week.
It comes as footage shared online showed one donkey fall to the ground while ferrying a cart around the inland Malaga town.
Nicola Sweeney told the Olive Press today: “I am staying in Mijas Pueblo and this will be the last time.
“Two donkeys have collapsed this week and the owner would not untie it so it was left hanging.
“Another donkey which was videoed collapsed in the street last night. I asked about water for them and was met with anger.
“This is shocking blatant animal abuse in full view of tourists. This has to be highlighted.”
A video shared on Instagram shows one donkey collapsing while pulling a cart through the hilltop town this week.
Meanwhile, another image shared by the local group Fuengirolasequeja shows a donkey seemingly collapsing in its barracks.
The caption said the donkeys had been ‘working all day in 38C’ and that ‘one of them collapsed right in front of one of the men working there’.
He accused the man of ‘doing nothing’ to help the ‘poor animal’ and even ‘ignored’ it when it cried for help.
“These people need to be reported,” it added.
The Olive Press has contacted Mijas town hall for comment.
It comes after one hundred people from the Spanish Animal Rights and Environmental Party (PACMA) held the protests over the issue of donkey taxis in Mijas on Sunday, May 12.
They were objecting to the use of ‘donkey taxis’ where the animals are used to transport tourists around the area.
“The animals are made to work 365 days a year under extreme conditions with no concern for their health,” said PACMA vicepresident and EU election candidate, Cristina Garcia.
“Mijas has to evolve and offer tourists a service and way of getting to know the area that is respectful to animals. The Mijas donkeys are emblematic and they have to be treated with dignity and respect.”
The animal rights group wants to ‘end animal exploitation in Mijas’ and ‘improve’ conditions if the donkeys continue to be used as ‘mere transporters’.
They have put forward a ‘number of alternatives’ to end the practice that would ‘maintain jobs and tourism’ in Mijas ‘without exploitation’.
However, dialogue between animal activists and the donkey drovers is ‘basically non existent’, Garcia said.
Talks with the town hall have also been going on ‘for years and years’, including meetings with ‘all possible government entities’ but no agreement has been reached.
“The response has always been the same,” said Garcia.
According to the PACMA vicepresident, they show willingness to act, improve conditions and modify municipal codes, but they are ‘always empty promises’.
Despite this, they claim the town hall continues to defend the ‘burro-taxis’, with some PACMA members even receiving ‘physical threats’ as a result of their opposition.
Many Mijas residents, like Adoracion Ponferrada, also attended the protest.
She told EFE: “The donkeys don’t have a place to rest where they can lay down, but it doesn’t matter to the drivers, they just want to exploit them.”
The Mijas local claims she has passed through the square where the donkeys are held many times and noted how the young donkey drivers were ‘on their phones, they don’t care about the donkeys’.
Another resident, Elena Girbal, urged Mijas council to ‘evolve’, saying: “They need to empathise with the animals, they are living beings that feel and suffer.”
“It is shameful that a town this beautiful has such a terrible image. Some people don’t visit because of it.”
