SAN DIEGO ( Border Report ) — Animal rights activists are demanding an end to “zonkeys,” the donkeys that are painted to look like zebras and are used as props for tourists on the streets of Tijuana, and they’re asking the animals be set free and given “a dignified life.”
During a demonstration this week, several groups asked Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda to intervene on behalf of the zebra burros.
“No animal exploited for tourism is a cultural icon,” said Carmen Dayana, an animal rights activist in Tijuana.
Dayana said they are not against the people who use the burros or work with them on the streets.
“We don’t wish to leave them without jobs,” she said. “It’s about using an animal, that doesn’t get the care it deserves, as a prop for tourism, it’s animal abuse.”
5 painted, malnourished ‘zonkeys’ rescued by animal services in Tijuana