Málaga, (EFE).- Some thirty people have gathered this Sunday in Mijas (Málaga) in an action called by the PACMA Animalist Party to protest the “legalized mistreatment” that the maintenance of the donkey-taxis service in this location.
At the event, with the motto Cut your rope!, the vice president of PACMA and candidate for mayor of Mijas in the next municipal elections, Cristina García, read a manifesto in which she criticized the “systematic exploitation of animals so noble as donkeys”.
He has assured that Andalusia is known “worldwide for its cruel traditions with animals and Mijas is a great reference point for this”, alluding to the donkey-taxis.
Regarding the origin of the donkey-taxis, he recalled that at the beginning of the 1960s some workers from Mijas who returned home on their donkeys were required by visitors, first to take photos of them and then to go for a ride on them. .
“It didn’t take them long to discover that the tips they obtained in this way exceeded their wages,” said García, who lamented that “more than 60 years later, it seems that time has not passed in Mijas.”
sustainable tourism
In this sense, he has assured that “everything continues the same or even worse, because what used to be done in a punctual and sporadic way, is now legalized abuse.”
Faced with this situation, he has urged them to “evolve”, because “there is no longer any justification for continuing to exploit donkeys”, and has called on the muleteers to find “a decent job proper to the 21st century”.
Tourists have also been addressed, asking them not to be “accomplices of this mistreatment”, because “these animals are slaves”.
The Mijas Town Hall has been reminded that a year ago they had a meeting in which they “promised an infinite number of improvements, but nothing has been done”, and has urged its mayor, Josele González, to make the municipality “a model of sustainable, responsible and friendly tourism with animals”.
Ordinance of the donkey-taxi
“Do not allow us to be known throughout the world for exploiting these noble animals,” he has claimed.
Among these improvements is the non-granting of more licenses and the rescue of those that are in force, the approval of an ordinance that regulates the donkey-taxi service “that they have been announcing for 5 years” and the transfer of donkeys to a plot with space for their recreation, which “they have been looking for for 8 years.”
The Animalist Party is running for elections in four Malaga municipalities: Rincón de la Victoria, Benalmádena, Málaga capital and Mijas, which makes Málaga the Andalusian province with the most candidacies in the May 28 elections. EFE