Thread: Zoo paints a donkey to pass it off as a zebra

[size=13pt]Donkey Business[/size]

The only zebra in Gaza.
By Sharon Weinberger

GAZA—Something didn't quite look right about the zebra, but it was hard to say exactly what. Of the several ramshackle zoos in Gaza, Marah, located not far from the Bureij refugee camp, is by far the cheeriest: The animals are lively, the enclosures clean, and children gather around the cage of a resting lion.

"It's really a painted donkey," admitted Mahmud Berghat, the director of Marah, when asked about the creature. Making a fake zebra isn't easy—henna didn't work and wood paint was deemed inhumane, so they finally settled on human hair dye. "We cut its hair short and then painted the stripes," Berghat explained behind the closed door of his office.

It did the trick—if not for zoologists, then at least for legions of Gaza schoolchildren who have never seen a real zebra. When I asked him whether anyone had ever caught the ruse, the director admitted that two sharp university students had IDed the counterfeit creature. "But don't tell anyone," he said. "The children love him."

That is awesome.
lol "don't tell anybody though".

What a jack ass!!!

lol they didn't do a bad job at all

[img width=450 height=337]http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/122986/2207881/2222735/2222990/090722_SS_4.jpg[/img]

"Garland" wrote:

[size=13pt]Donkey Business[/size]

The only zebra in Gaza.
By Sharon Weinberger

GAZA—Something didn't quite look right about the zebra, but it was hard to say exactly what. Of the several ramshackle zoos in Gaza, Marah, located not far from the Bureij refugee camp, is by far the cheeriest: The animals are lively, the enclosures clean, and children gather around the cage of a resting lion.

"It's really a painted donkey," admitted Mahmud Berghat, the director of Marah, when asked about the creature. Making a fake zebra isn't easy—henna didn't work and wood paint was deemed inhumane, so they finally settled on human hair dye. "We cut its hair short and then painted the stripes," Berghat explained behind the closed door of his office.

It did the trick—if not for zoologists, then at least for legions of Gaza schoolchildren who have never seen a real zebra. When I asked him whether anyone had ever caught the ruse, the director admitted that two sharp university students had IDed the counterfeit creature. "But don't tell anyone," he said. "The children love him."

I have heard of lipstick on sheep in Winsonsin.....but this is ridiculous!

"Tad7" wrote:

lol they didn't do a bad job at all

[img width=450 height=337]http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/122986/2207881/2222735/2222990/090722_SS_4.jpg[/img]

real zebra

"i_bleed_purple" wrote:

"Tad7" wrote:

lol they didn't do a bad job at all

[img width=450 height=337]http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/122986/2207881/2222735/2222990/090722_SS_4.jpg[/img]

real zebra

I bet you cannot even taste the difference!

lol

Wow!

did you know zebras are brown and white and not black and white?

And no one would know the difference if they have never seen a Zebra before anyways. Good move by the zoo