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Would you be able to tell the difference between a zebra and a painted donkey? Well, one zoo in Cairo, Egypt was banking on no one being able to. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like very many folks were fooled, especially not 18-year-old zoogoer Mahmoud Sarhan.
Sarhan was visiting International Garden municipal park’s recently-opened animal sanctuary.
While he was checking out the animals, he noticed something strange and among further investigation, it appeared that the zoo was trying to be slick and decided to paint a donkey with zebra stripes. They didn’t do a very good job, though. Or maybe it was just hot, and the paint was running.
Sarhan posed next to the animal and shared photos on Facebook with the caption: “The stupidity has reached in the country that they brought a local donkey and painted it to look like a zebra.”
Here are the photos:
Retweet if this is a donkey. Like if this is a zebra. pic.twitter.com/nyk18P36ZM
— Jason Spicoli (@Morningfiasco) July 27, 2018
And another look.
Zoo under fire after trying to pass off donkey as zebra https://t.co/CxMF6LvSX1 pic.twitter.com/tCpmuVEmWp
— News24 (@News24) July 26, 2018
Despite what looks like an obvious fake, the director of Gardens Project in Cairo Mohammed Sulta insisted that the zebra was not a fake.
“The zebra is real and not painted,” Sulta said, via Youm 7 news in Egypt.
Sure, bud, whatever you say. And for what it’s worth, PETA caught wind of the story and issued a statement of their own claiming what we all can obviously tell: that’s a donkey.
“No reputable animal care facility would subject a skittish animal like a donkey to the stress of being restrained and sprayed with chemicals like paint, which could cause a painful allergic reaction, and PETA hopes that Cairo authorities are fully investigating this matter,” PETA Foundation Vice President Delcianna Winders said in a statement, via CNN.
The world has gone mad.
