Push to End Cruel Donkey Rides to Hit Greek Embassy

PETA Will Demand an End to Santorini’s Donkey Abuse After Horrifying Investigation

For Immediate Release:
June 12, 2019

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

Brandishing blown-up photos from PETA Germany’s damning eyewitness investigation, a group of PETA supporters will descend on the Embassy of Greece in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to call for an end to Santorini’s notoriously inhumane donkey rides. The protest is the third of several PETA demonstrations taking place this week at Greek embassies around the world.

When:    Thursday, June 13, 12 noon

Where:    Outside the Embassy of Greece, 2217 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. (at the intersection with Sheridan Circle N.W.), D.C.

Video footage revealed that donkeys and mules are used as “taxis” in Santorini’s scorching heat, forced to transport tourists—many of whom are overweight—up more than 500 steep steps to the old town of Firá, even though a cable car has been operating nearby for decades. Many animals were tethered in the blazing sun without access to water or shade—and some were even forced to continue working at night, hauling bags of trash. Animals who are too old or weak to work are often abandoned to die.

“It’s a disgrace that gentle donkeys are being marched into the ground as they’re worked day in and day out with no relief from the hot sun,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is galvanizing Greek authorities to step up and stop this abuse.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.