Submitted By: Jeff
Editor’s Note: Wow, the comments are hopping on this one. For those that are interested the backstory for this can be found by clicking here. Thanks to all the Fixers who posted that link in the comments. Also, I scrounged up some video footage for you!
-Ms. Fix-It
Favorite Comment: Fixer dono1 says, “So, a zebra breaks out of the zoo and she finds her way to a farm. She goes up to a big fat weird brown thing and says, “Hi, I’m a zebra. What are you?” “I’m a cow.” “And what do you do?” “I give the farmer milk.” Then she goes up to a funny looking little white thing and says,”Hi, I’m a zebra. What are you?” “I’m a chicken.” “And what do you do?” “I lay eggs for the farmer.” Then the zebra goes up to a very handsome beast that looks almost exactly like her but without the stripes. She runs over to it and says, “Hi, I’m a zebra. What are you?” “I’m a stallion” says the stallion. “Wow!” says the zebra, “and what do you do?” “Take off those pajamas, darling, and I’ll show you.”
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Um…is that painted donkey even alive?
wow…
Best one ever! ROFL
That is just so sad….on many levels.
Who would do such a thing? Hmmmm…. Any animal right’s lawyers viewing this site? That paint is probably toxic!
an animal rights lawyer in gaza? are you out of your goddamn mind?
@Grani
get over it.
After the Shrek movie craze, Donkey had to work some gigs he wasn’t exactly proud of.
Yup, that’s a painted Donkey. It’s in a Gaza zoo. Apparently a real zebra would cost about $40k and would have to be smuggled in. The zookeepers wanted the kids to be able to see something different so they dyed the donkey’s hair. Not saying I agree with it, but imagine the trauma of smuggling in the zebra from somewhere else. Google gaza and zebra and the article should come up.
Behold! The rare and exotic Arabic Zebra!! (You won’t see another one until the spray paint goes on sale again.)
It’s not just that the zebras are expensive. It’s that you can’t get FOOD, let alone exotic animals, into or out of Gaza because Israel is blockading the supply lines. It’s been widely reported that the Gaza zoo is using some really sad counterfeits to try to give Gazan children some exposure to the wider world, even if it’s simulated, and incidentally make enough money to feed the animals. If they don’t, those broken down zebras will probably feed Gazans.
A zoo in Gaza cannot afford to buy zebras and has instead painted stripes on two donkeys, AFP reports.
Israel controls the movement of goods into and out of Gaza and only allows in humanitarian and basic supplies. The zoo could smuggle zebras into Gaza through tunnels connecting the strip with Egypt, but that would cost $30,000. The zoo director, Mahmud Barghut, told AFP: “We couldn’t afford real zebras.” Donkeys only cost $700.
The Telegraphs reports that the zoo had two zebras, but they died of starvation during the Gaza War.
Dalton Bros.!
Bearing in mind that there’s a military blockade and zebras would have risked death being smuggled under the border, plus the chance of being killed by military action like the last two, maybe this isn’t so bad. Context, guys! See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8297812.stm
The first few prototypes around the Pepe LePew paradigm didn’t make much sense.
This was in the news recently… think I saw it on cnn.com or something.
yes, it’s a REAL live donkey. The zoo painted several of them for the kids.
A level of saddness I did not expect… Here is the story ~ http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE5973NV20091008
He is looking to get a job being a zebra in the NBA as a replacement
The story is actually rather sad. This is a Palestinian zoo that had to replace their zebras after it was bombed a while ago. I find this a very creative solution.
Let’s hope they used a non-toxic paint!
Nooooo. This is just so wrong in so many levels. I want one.
@Evan – Win
@Grani
dude that s in Gaza , if it can make those kids smile then who cares.
Want to know the worst news? It started out as a brown donkey.
I dont care if the kids never saw a zebra before or not. Nothing justifies the mistreatment of animals, Period.
How is the donkey being mistreated?
…by being forced to live in gaza.
I think the kid in the yellow shirt might actually be an anteater.
@Paula:
It’s not a man with green hair, but a woman wearing a green hijab.
Picture taken in Gaza, read article about it here
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE5973NV20091008
@Paula The “man” with green “hair” is a WOMAN with a head covering.
We did the same thing for my daughter’s forth grade Science Fair. Except with cats. 20 of them. And we painted them to look like bees. She had to change schools the next year.
This donkey is actually quite famous, it is known as “the gaza strip zebra”, and it is a symbol of the israelian oppression on palestinians.
Because of the Israel embargo, when the real zebras of the zoo died of ond age, this donkey was the only thing the zookeeper had to replace them.
What a jackass!
You should see their rare short-necked giraffe!
i heard next week they gonna make a unicorn
Sorry. not fun.
Yeah, there are poor countries, and really this was cheaper than taking zebras there.
The zebra at the Israeli zoo starved to death during the war with Hammas…they didn’t have enough money to buy a new one, so they painted their donkey.
I’ll laugh at a lot of things, but this isn’t one of them.
You can’t go to Mexico and NOT see one of these. I guarantee you if you go to Avenue de Revolution in Tijuana right now, there will be one there.
Anyone who does this is cruel to animals. It doesn’t matter what their “political” situation is.
I bet he feels like an ass.
They prolly promised the poor donkey 72 virgins.
Wow, some of you guys are really going over the top with this. (Those of you complaining about animal cruelty.) It was done with hair dye, if hair dye is toxic, then I’m in a whole hell of a lot of trouble here.
It would be one thing if the children were told “Here’s what a zebra would look like” but they were told that these were zebras. And, then, in addition to teaching them lies they were given rides on the “zebras” and were encouraged to beat them. What a wonderful educational tool. What a wonderful way to bring peace to the Middle East.
kludgepolitik
To all above who are complaining about animal rights: read the damn article attached, its die specifically made for hair…how is it cruel to change the color of its fur? as z said before, the kids loved it, can’t you see the good in that? Or is a donkey’s fashion more important than the happiness of war-stricken children??? some of you animal rights activist have your priorities ALL backwards…
I have to agree that it is not cruelty in any way to dye the “Zebra” but I disagree that the children loved it. I watched the video and the little creeps were beating on it and that is cruel. You do have to give it to those wacky muslims though, always thinking (or attempting to)
I dunno… doesn’t look like the ‘Zebra’ seems to care much.
I don’t see this as anymore ‘cruelty’ than shaving a sheep for it’s wool, shaving a poodle to make it look stupid, or any of a million things people do to their pets (declaw a cat?). Heck, neutering/spaying your dog/cat is probably more traumatic to the animal than this ‘Zebra’ gets. Hey, he’s not having to pull a plow or haul stuff around, he just gets to stand around and eat while people point and stare.
i would like to see some of there other rare animals
@Tanner
…and I suppose every woman getting their hair colored is mis treated? (well, granted maybe some) but come on its just some dye. chill.
When I first looked at it, I thought it was a donkey who had reccently escaped from the local jail, not a zebra wanna be.
google ads on the video says: “learn how to paint”. lol
Many links to the story behind the zebra are posted, but look how many fail to read them! ~ Too much trouble to read is it? #1: FYI what we first thought was paint is not paint but ladies hair dye. #2:Being a poor country is not the problem – it’s the Israeli embargo/oppression. But gosh understanding that would require a knowledge of what is going on outside of our own tiny neighborhoods….apparently not ever gonna happen for some. ~ My question now is, how did they keep the donkey THAT still THAT long to first tape him up and then dye the rest?
Duct tape to the rescue?
Does anyone notice how skinny these donkeys are? They are being slapped around by kids, and they look even more ticked with them on their backs. Yes I know it is a very underdeveloped area, but damn this made me sick to watch.
Nice. So far, we’ve got a dozen people worried about cruelty to animals over a creative hair dye job, and less than half that many showing concern about the plight of the Palestinians. Not trying to be a bleeding heart, but that seems a little backwards, right?
When I was living in IN, there was a woman who would paint her horse with various organs, muscle structures, bones, nerves, blood vessels, etc. as part of a display for the Hoosier Horse Fair and other equine events. The horse was well trained and would stand there for his 20 minute touch-ups every morning. There’s nothing that says that these animals were subjected to an all-in-one painting.
While not the best solution to a problem, this may be all these children get for awhile, but let’s hope, not for the rest of their lives. How long were we fed the belief that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree? Some day, someone will eventually step up to the plate and explain that this was done for a reason, but for now, it’s a kludge of epic proportions from our perspective.
When it comes down to feeding the donkey or feeding the kids, the kids win.
So, a zebra breaks out of the zoo and she finds her way to a farm. She goes up to a big fat weird brown thing and says, “Hi, I’m a zebra. What are you?” “I’m a cow.” “And what do you do?” “I give the farmer milk.” Then she goes up to a funny looking little white thing and says,”Hi, I’m a zebra. What are you?” “I’m a chicken.” “And what do you do?” “I lay eggs for the farmer.” Then the zebra goes up to a very handsome beast that looks almost exactly like her but without the stripes. She runs over to it and says, “Hi, I’m a zebra. What are you?” “I’m a stallion” says the stallion. “Wow!” says the zebra, “and what do you do?” “Take off those pajamas, darling, and I’ll show you.”
One hot summer day the neighbor’s big collie dog had just been shaved – he had a bit of fur around his neck and big tuft at the end of his tail. When the dog ran across the Ledbetter’s back yard, Newgene went running through the house yelling, “Lion in the yard!” Uncle Versie called him down and said, “Newgene, I’ve scolded you and whupped you to try to cure you of lying. Now go on up to your room without any dinner and pray for 30 minutes until the Lord convicts you of your lying!” About an hour later, Newgene came down to see Uncle Versie. “Did the Lord make it real plain to you? Did the Lord speak to you?” “Yessir”
“What did the Lord say?” “The Lord told me that the 1st time he saw that dog, He thought it was a lion, too!”
Re: #49
Good point. However when I first posted concern for the animal….seems there was only one other post showing at the time….I had not checked out the story, tho I did immediately…finding out it was in Gaza along with the whole sad story behind the funny photo. Unfortunately too many have no understanding of Gaza’s struggles, past or present.
Re: #50 one small step,
Thanks for the interesting information on animal painting…never considered the stripes weren’t done in one sitting.
Not only George and the cherry tree but much of everything we learned in history class is suspect.
I agree, the kids will learn later on, if they are able to live that long. Considering their lives are a day-to-day matter, any happiness brought by a painted donkey is good. I did not read about the beating of the “zebra” by the children, I do not see that bringing anything good to anyone.
Once a serious side of a funny photo has taken hold of a thread, it’s so hard to go back to the fun side….but kudos for those of you that keep trying.
@Gal “They prolly promised the poor donkey 72 virgins.”
That may very well be politically incorrect ..but it is funny.
Where were the animal rights activist when the zebra’s were starving to death? Hollywood paints and dyes animals all the time. Do you really think the got 7 identical horses for Hildalgo?
@even
You are absolutely right. I saw the zonkey and laughed.I saw the headscarf and knew this was going to end badly. Read “Gaza”, felt ill…I dont know who’s fault it is but people shouldn’t have to live like this. Read comment 23 and it reminded me I dwell amongst idiots.
Am I the only who watched the video and wondered why they showed a picture of a lioness while the voiceover explains that the zoo has a tigress?
Between letting the original zebras starve, letting the kids beat the donkey-zebras, and not being able to correctly identify the animals they have left…
Yeah.
Zoo fail.
I never enjoyed the zoo as a kid and still don’t as an adult. Putting hair dye on a Donkey is interesting but a publicity stunt at best, the zoo owners did not do it for the children. Look at the zoo, it is obviously private and all those animals had to be smuggled in at one point in time unless they were previously successful enough for a trade (doubt it). Lions have been illegal for years and are traded zoo to zoo only. As for the little bastards slapping and hitting the zonkey well they are the middle eastern equivalent of those little bastards that run around the grocery store slamming into old people and knocking crap off the shelves. Bad parenting is universal.
also that is NOT a tigress its a lioness but I noticed they didn’t paint HER
“The first time we used paint but it didn’t look good,” he said. — that is awesome. Last time I checked a zoo keeper should know how to care for animals….
They also showed a little kid (not the goat type) as the voiceover said the zoo has monkeys.
@tables
Hell, the ‘Zonkey’ probably enjoyed getting high from all the paint.
@dono – my hat is off to you again my friend. You just can not overestimate the value of having a good zebra joke in your back pocket.
Maybe their “Tigress” is only there they days they can paint their lioness…
They could have done the stripes with duct tape and saved the paint.
I was way more upset by the weight of those poor donkeys than the dye job and deception. The original zebras starved to death and unless something is done those poor donkeys will soon follow. Perhaps they shouldn’t be adding ANY animals to the zoo if they can’t feed the ones they have. Major zoo fail. A little protection from unsupervised children would be nice as well. Those donkeys are saints for not tearing those kids up though any animal at that level of emaciation is going to be too weak to offer up too much of a fight.
Animal rightists get your facts first. Those donkeys are not skinny. I dare you to see any ribs showing. The donkeys were not painted they were dyed with hair color, duh. Lions are routinely traded around the world as they are not endangered. The picture is of a lioness not tigeress. The monkey in the shot is a baboon. The camels are native to the area, not smuggled in. Jumping to the conclusion that the animals were smuggled in is pure Rush Limbaugh logic. Be glad these animals have a home and are fed and cared for. The donkeys are not excited or protesting, very comfortable over all. If all the kids hit the donkeys everyday those donkeys would run away at the sight of them. Obviously that doesn’t usually happen. The biggest threat to animals comes from the ignorant animal rights people not the ones who make the enormous effort to house, care for and feed the animals they love.
I dunno, all politics and “animal rights” whackjobs aside, I see this one as a win… making do with what you have in a crappy situation they created a ZebrAss.
At least they didn’t try to stripe a camel!
Donkey wondered why he was such a spectacle after having his daytime snooze behind a set of bars.
So, I am assuming none of you people who say the children are “beating” the donkeys have never been near a real horse either??? I’ve seen people pat their horse harder than that. Donkeys are a different shape to horses, which means their spines, ribs and hips are more prominent. These donkeys are not skinny, and those children are not mistreating them…. There is no beating…. I couldn’t even count the amount of times I slapped my horse on the behind out in the paddock… oh my goodness….. I’ve participated in animal cruelty…. lame.
That is just cruel.nuff said!!!!
YOU try painting a lion…
@ Kees
yeah that was my point they didn’t try painting her cause its dangerous you know worrying about the well being of the humans working there but SRLY they need a grow brain stem thats NOT a good zebra replacement & i bet they killed them too
I vote… CLOSE THIS ZOO FAIL!
I like the people at the top of this comment page who are trying to blame this all on Israel. Trust me when I tell you- the nuts that painted this donkey would just as soon tie a Jew up and paint them too. Isreal is our FRIEND- don’t forget it.
Hear, hear! Whilst everyone is ‘commiserating’ with the Palestinians because they don’t have real Zebras any longer, after allowing the first ones to die of hunger, they shouldn’t permitted to have any animals! These are the people that initiate rocket attacks on Israel, then freak out when Israel defends herself. They demanded that the people who were living in Gaza for generations leave their family homes and find somewhere else to live, uprooting thousands of Jews and taking their entire tradition and culture away from them because they needed somewhere inside Israel to launch more effective attacks on them. The zebras’ bad dye job is the least of people’s worries. Israel IS our friend, and they don’t bring up their children to be animal-abusing brats either.
I’m so tired of extremists using stupid things like this to play upon the sympathies of those who don’t know any better. Grrrrr…
I know this is an old thread, but seriously. Are you being sarcastic?
“These are the people that initiate rocket attacks on Israel, then freak out when Israel defends herself. They demanded that the people who were living in Gaza for generations leave their family homes and find somewhere else to live, uprooting thousands of Jews and taking their entire tradition and culture away from them because they needed somewhere inside Israel to launch more effective attacks on them.”
Its the israelis who fire automatic weapons and missles from tanks at peoples armed with rocks and cold war rockets. Its the israelis who demanded that people who were living in Gaza for generations to leave (last time I checked, the Palestinians have lived there since, oh, The Ottoman Empire, and the Israelis 2 generations.
I nominate the attached Video for Failblog too. That’s an aging LIONess, not an aging tigress.
thank you when i forwarded the email I said the video NEEDS to be on fail blog
If you want to dye your hair that’s your personal choice but i have never seen an animal come up to anyone with a bottle of dye.
This is just like those snobby rich girls who have a poodle and decide all of the sudden that it should be pink. The dying/drying process makes the animal quite miserable.
I appreciate their efforts on behalf of the children but I think this was just a fail. Good memories are not made with lies and facades. Everyone can disagree if they want.
If you see this as a symbol of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, please remember that Arafat died with billions of dollars while his people (and zebras, apparently) starved. Why? So that they can generate sympathy for their plight. This is another in a long line of propaganda tools. A sad one at that.
Sooo we’ve got quite a barrel of crazy right there…
To all the frustrated vegetarian/Pro-WWF out there:
The people who painted the “zebras” own a zoo. Which means they have a veterinary diploma. Which mean they studied at least 6 years on animal health. Which means they are the most trusted poeple to listen to about animals, and if they think dye is okay, then dye is okay. Any people who say the contrary is either dying dumb, or a dyed troll.
To all the pro/anti palestinan people here: GTFO. We’re talking about false zebras, not false rumors about two dumb nations who kill each others for a piece of earth since 50 years now. Again, troll or dumb.
no de the killed their real zebras cause the retards didn’t relize they required food at some point
If having zebras were so important, why didn’t they feed the ones they had?
Re the Israeli blockade – for balance, it’s a joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade, what with the Gaza strip not being surrounded by Israel. The sanctions are UN mandated.
Not saying there’s not a lot wrong in the region, but if painted zebra-donkeys doesn’t tell you that the whole thing is FUBB on all sides, then what will?
Snotnose> I think you’re completely wrong. The people doing this run a zoo, not a terrorist organisation. They just want to get on with their lives.
The people who maybe would paint a jew – I can’t believe I’m writing these words – would much rather kill them. Come to think of it, though, forcibly painting people as animals might be a better terrorist technique than suicide bombings for getting people to pay the right kind of attention to you.
Okay, so if this isn’t just more “poor, poor, pitiful me” propaganda from the terrorists, explain this to me. How is it that the zebras starved to death because the Palestinians didn’t have enough money to feed them, but the donkeys have not starved? Either there is enough food for two equines or there isn’t.
What do you suppose they named their Zebra/donkey hybrid?
I would vote for Spot
The video that shows the zoo dying the stripes on, masked off by tape doesn’t show the children behaving cruelly. The video here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8297812.stm shows it plainly. I was disgusted to see the boys punching one in the hip, another slapping it in the face. Kids in any culture act like barbarians if they aren’t taught to be kind and gentle. Seeing a bad example set by the first boy, it seems more join in and start bullying the donkey. It’s a shame something like that has to mar an otherwise touching story.
Something like that happened with real people in Illinois not too long ago. Maybe you saw the video?
A bunch of distinguished professors were visiting the Hwange National Park. They drove out on the savannah in their jeep, stopped and scouted the horizon with their binoculars.
Suddenly the engineering prof shouted “Look! There’s a herd of zebras! And there, in the middle : A white zebra! It’s fantastic! There are white zebras ! We’ll be famous!”
The biology prof replied “I wonder if its offspring have stripes?”
The physics prof punched his calculator and said “It should take four and a half cans of paint to get the stripes back on.”
The chemistry prof quickly worked out a new paint formula that would make just four cans of paint sufficient.
The statistics prof added “It’s not significant. We only know there’s one white zebra.”
The maths prof made his contribution “Actually, we only know there exists a zebra, which is white on one side.”
But the Park Ranger with them said “Oh, so that’s where my horse went!”
I am certainly NOT an animal rights activist. I am anti peta, I raise rabbits, have chickens, dogs and horses. I realize that horses and donkeys have different builds but if you honestly can look at those donkeys and claim they are at a healthy weight than I would hate to see what your animals look like. And this is coming from someone who prefers her animals NOT be the obesity that normal people call a healthy weight. I also push, slap and play with my horses. I do NOT however, allow children or anyone else to punch them or hit their face. Not because I think it will hurt them, they certainly take much more abuse from their pasture mates, but it can create headshy issues and is just disrespectful to the animal.
@Tanner
Here’s some food for thought for you… If the donkey wasn’t dyed into zebra form, it would have spent its life hauling carts and (probably) getting smacked with a crop.
What makes the zonkey happier: Being whipped into submission from behind a cart or being given attention by a bunch of children?
It’s a donkey. I honestly don’t think that it cares.
@Zimmy Buffett
My vote goes for Streak
(… get it?… cuz donkeys are slow…)
@Gal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn#Origins
some zoo already stole that idea… they’ll have to think of something else (narwhal anybody??)
dude, ive never seen a zebra in real life before or a donkey for that matter, if i didnt know anybetter i couldnt have told anyone the difference
You can see that it is fake, not very convincing. But then again, I see them every day.
This is mostly at the people claiming the donkeys aren’t starved cause ‘lol you can’t see their ribs, they aren’t starved!’ Cause yes, seeing the ribs is the -only- sign in an equestrian. I mean, you can see the back bone, you can see the hip bones, you can see the neck look like a candy wrapper of sorts [how a candy wrapper has two ends and a stuffed middle] and afaik those AREN’T healthy signs in an animal. The neck has NO muscle tone at all, the hind quarters are just about flesh stretched over bones. I wince because it makes me think of the Skelly horses from WoW.
These are NOT healthy animals.
This is a sob story kludge from a fail zoo. :/
I don’t however, understand why they do it in Mexico.
Apparently no one has ever been to Tijuana. This is common fare–get the tourists to put their kids on a donkey painted w/ stripes and take an overpriced photo. Look, honey, isn’t he keeuuuwwt?
Maybe the fact that the zoo in Gaza is doing this now can be considered a multiple discovery (except that this has been going on in Tijuana for decades).
The levels of ignorance in these comments is astounding.
I love how it’s the Israeli embargo/oppression/aggression/war’s fault. If you stand by a gate on the border with Gaza, do you see any trucks coming out with humanitarian aid? No, you see full trucks coming in from Israel full of Israeli supplies. I know exotic animals are at the top of the priority list for all those living in Gaza. The Israelis will get to in right away. And meanwhile, just smuggle those animals through the tunnels from Egypt. Drug them, throw them in a bag and drag them through a dangerous, dusty tunnel. Go ahead, you’re next in line, right behind those rocket launchers and in front of the explosives. Don’t worry, the kids have never seen a Komodo Dragon before.
Anyway, what they really want is an elephant: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1009861.html
I WANNA SEE SOMEONE SLAP THOSE LITTLE A**HOLES!!!
Actually, there’s a pretty interesting book written by a journalist about the plight of the Gaza zoo. It’s called “The Zoo on the Road to Nablus: A Story of Survival from the West Bank” and it’s written by Amelia Thomas, if you’re interested.
Thank God they used a “professional painter”. Is that a job in the middle east? Professional donkey painter? Where do I apply?
You should see their other attraction,Omar,the “one-eared elephant”.
i had an exam for my animals in humans societies sociology paper at uni yesterday. we had to write an essay on the welfare of animals in zoos and i used this as one of my examples…there i fixed it fixed my essay!!
i want to know if anyone noticed how the news reporter called the LION a TIGRESS.
Pity that the linked story is Reuters; it was positively soggy with “poor Palestinians suffer at the hands of evil Israelis” bias.
Looks like a typical streetcorner in Tijuana. There should be a whorehouse three blocks north.