No more overweight: heavy tourists are not longer allowed to take a donkey ride on Santorini
Greek island of Santorini is a famous place. People come here from all over the world to enjoy spectacular landscapes and to have a perfectly arranged vacation.
Photo: maxpixel (CC0 Public Domain)
Photo: maxpixel (CC0 Public Domain)
Local streets are curvy and narrow. Besides, you often have to climb up the numerous stairs in order to find better panoramic view. So a donkey ride is rather popular thing here. Moreover, these animals are used to carry all kinds of heavy weights, because it is impossible to use a car.
Photo: By Norbert Nagel, from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo: Klearchos Kapoutsis/flickr (CC BY 2.0)
The way of treatment of the donkeys has for a long time been a matter of attention of campaigners who take care of animal’s rights. Even a petition called ‘Donkeys on Santorini Abused and Used as Taxis: Please Help Them!’
Photo: By Saintfevrier, from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
People pointed out that donkeys were forced to work long hours all week round, sometimes even without a chance to have some rest and proper food. Moreover, due to constant carrying of heavy loads (and tourists too!) a lot of animals have certain spinal problems.
Photo: By Norbert Nagel, from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Thus the Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food was forced to take action. Thus a pack of new regulations have been developed. Now, according to it, the donkeys shouldn’t carry the tourists or weights that exceeds 100 kg, i.e. one fifth of their own weight.
Photo: JD Lasica/flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Tradition of donkey rides has been developing on Santorini for a long time. While it is obvious that a lot of work still should be done, it is very important that the problem was brought to light. And now there’s a hope that the life of poor animals would become easier.
