Photos of the painted donkey disguised as a zebra went viral after one visitor shared photos online. Photos of the painted donkey disguised as a zebra went viral after one visitor shared photos online. New animals in a zoo always attract more visitors, but what an Egyptian zoo did to get more footfall has not only started a laughing riot online but also triggered a backlash. A zoo in Cairo has been accused of trying to fool visitors by painting a donkey with zebra stripes! Yes, quite a softer personification of the proverb “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” A student visiting the zoo was baffled to see the animal with what looked like marks drawn by paint and shared it on Facebook. The smudged colour near its mouth and ear were enough to convince him otherwise but the zoo authorities refuted the claims and insisted the animal is the ‘real thing’. Mahmoud Sarhan put the images on Facebook after visiting Cairo’s International Garden municipal park and it quickly went viral for the obvious reasons across social media platforms. Sharing the photo the young man wrote in Arabic: “The stupidity has reached in the country that they brought a local donkey and painted it to look like a zebra.” Many on social media thought it was really stupid and slammed the zoo authorities. I’ve seen a zebra. A zebra is a zebra is a zebra. But a painted donkey, I have not seen. Sign me up — christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) July 28, 2018 If the donkey identifies itself as a zebra I think we should respect that https://t.co/qkZy9W98fl — Rick the Ref (@_Reffuji_) July 29, 2018 I just want to see an interview with the dude that painted the donkey lmao. “Honey, how was your day?” https://images.indianexpress.com/2020/08/1x1.png “I turned a donkey into a zebra.” https://t.co/T5K8yARncA — Joshua Morgan (@JoshMorgan63) July 29, 2018 Zebra? Or donkey? A zoo in Egypt is accused of spray painting a donkey to look like a zebra!… pic.twitter.com/D0kCJe43fc — Mary Stackhouse (@marywzdx) July 29, 2018 I feel bad for all the shade being thrown at zebra donkey. Maybe the donkey wanted to be a zebra & the zoo was just allowing him to live his best life. — Censored Girl (@Girl_Censored) July 27, 2018 Zoo in Cairo makes ass out of itself. Paints a donkey & calls it a zebra. Can’t make this 💩 up. #Zebra #Donkey #DonkeyZebra https://t.co/ENeyYsAgP5 — Lisa & K9X3 (@LisaAlesci) July 27, 2018 Some even asked PETA to check. In their blog, the animal welfare organisation slammed the zoo and wrote, “No reputable animal-care facility would subject skittish animals like donkeys to the stress of being restrained and sprayed with chemicals like paint, which could cause a painful allergic reaction.” They also urged people to boycott the zoo. ANIMALS DESERVE OUR RESPECT 😡 As if suffering in captivity wasn’t already horrible enough, this roadside zoo in #Cairo reportedly painted donkeys to look like zebras. https://t.co/ni8KppBqgL — PETA 🐳🐬 (@peta) July 27, 2018 This isn’t the first time a zoo has tried to fool visitors. Earlier a zoo in Gaza had done the same with a donkey, painting it with black stripes to make it look like a zebra.<doc-sep>“It was a normal Egyptian donkey that you see everywhere," a zoogoer complained. CAIRO -- An Egyptian zoo has come under criticism after being accused of painting donkeys to make them look like zebras. The zoo in Nasr City has denied the allegation but Mahmoud Sarhan, a recent high school graduate whose recent Facebook photos of the two animals stirred the pot, is convinced otherwise. “When we approached the zebra we realized that the lines were clearly painted, the paint was smudgy and his hair was nothing like that of a zebra,” Sarhan told ABC News. “It was a normal Egyptian donkey that you see everywhere.” Sarhan was visiting the zoo in eastern Cairo, at the municipal International Garden park, with his family last week when he snapped the now-viral photos. “Stupidity in our country has reached a level that they are now painting over a donkey to make it look like a Zebra,” he said in the post, which has been shared over 10,000 times. “They are so stupid they forgot to paint another layer and so it smudged on the donkey’s face.” ABC News has been unable to reach the International Garden administration for comment but Mahmoud Sultan, director of Cairo’s Gardens Projects, the government body regulating the zoo in question, has told local media the zebra is real. But a senior official with Egypt’s Central Administration for Zoos told ABC News that the “zebra” is, without a doubt, fake, adding that the facility doesn’t fall under that group’s supervision. Mohamed Ragaee, head of the Central Administration, said, “The only zebras in Egypt are found in the Giza and Alexandria zoos.” Zoos in Egypt are notorious for the harsh conditions the animals are forced to endure. The Giza zoo, the oldest and largest in Africa, lost its accreditation from the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums in 2004 because of its deteriorating conditions. Meanwhile, Sarhan is now worried, given some social media comments that he concocted the story for attention, he told ABC News. “I am afraid it will turn against me,” he said.<doc-sep>Why does the zebra have stripes? Scientists are divided. But something nearly everyone can agree on is why this donkey has stripes. Because a zoo painted them on to look like a zebra. Allegedly. People are accusing Cairo's International Garden municipal park of faking zebras after an Egyptian student's photo of a suspicious animal recently went viral. Smudges on the hair and decidedly un-zebra-like long ears had people crying foul just as soon as Mahmoud Sarhan posted the photo to Facebook. Experts have also chimed in, saying a zebra's snout is black while the photographed animal's is not. However, the BBC reports the zoo denies it painted the pack animal. Zoo director Mohamed Sultan reportedly told local reporters the animal is the real deal. In a local interview with Extranews.tv, Sarhan said the animal in his famous photo was one of two in the enclosure that were painted to look like zebras. RELATED STORIES<doc-sep>
Zoo accused of painting donkeys to look like ... Zoo accused of painting donkeys to look like zebras Zoo accused of painting donkeys to look like zebras An Egyptian zoo is insisting it did not paint a pair of donkeys to look like zebras. Cairo's International Garden municipal park became a target of ridicule after an Egyptian student, Mahmoud Sarhan, posted images on Facebook of the suspicious beast. Sarhan said that the zoo's two zebras were obviously painted donkeys, a view that has since been embraced by online animal experts. However, zoo director Mohamed Sultan told a local radio station that his zebras are real, dismissing claims that they are just painted donkeys, according to the BBC. This is not the first time that a zoo has painted donkeys to look like zebras. In 2009, a zoo in Gaza did the same thing, saying that it could not procure real zebras due to an Israeli blockade. An alleged zebra stands with Egyptian student Mahmoud A. Sarhan. Mahmoud A. Sarhan "The first time we used paint but it didn't look good," the zoo's proprietor told Reuters at the time. "The children don't know, so they call them zebras and they are happy to see something new." In 2013, a Chinese zoo was criticized for trying to pass off a large dog as a lion. "The zoo is absolutely trying to cheat us," one visitor told Chinese media. "They are trying to disguise dogs as lions." Zebras and donkeys, despite both bearing a resemblance to horses, are different species. Donkeys are popular beasts of burden in developing countries and were domesticated millennia ago. Zebras, meanwhile, are primarily known for their black-and-white stripes. Zebras also have black snouts, according to one expert. They are also larger and less donkey-like than the animal in the viral photo, and do not have smudged stripes.