The move was probably an attempt to boost tourism, but it sparked outrage, prompting police to say that charges couldn’t be pressed against the guides as the donkey was not injured and there was no proof to confirm that the animal was traumatized.
This was not the first such incident. In 2010, a donkey was made to parasail as part of an advertising stunt in southern Russia, the BBC reported, citing Russian media. The incident that took place back then (2010) prompted police in the area to launch an investigation into the matter. The donkey was sent up into the sky by entrepreneurs to attract people to their private beach.
Witnesses near the beach on the Sea of Azov in the Krasnodar region state that the donkey was screaming in fear. The animal landed in the water and was pulled onto the shore, according to police. “The donkey screamed, and children cried,” regional police spokeswoman Larisa Tuchkova told the AFP news agency. “No one had the brains to call the police.” Bystanders, instead, clicked photographs and phoned newspapers, she said.
“It was put up so high into the sky that the children on the beach cried and asked their parents: ‘Why did they tie a doggy to a parachute?'” Taman newspaper reported last week.”The donkey landed in an atrocious manner: it was dragged several meters along the water, after which the animal was pulled out half-alive onto the shore,” the paper reported. Police began to investigate after the incident, which occurred at the coastal village of Golubitskaya.
