Egypt Zoo Paints Donkeys To Pass Them Off As Zebras, Gets Busted By Visitor’s Viral FB Post

This is probably the oldest trick in the book. It’s been shown in movies, and joked about so many times. You’d never have imagined that it would actually be done, more so by a legit zoo! But dear skeptics, you’ve already been proved wrong once before by a Chinese zoo that tried to pass off a dog as a lion! And now, it was the turn of an Egypt zoo to pull the same trick with a donkey!

An Egypt zoo is being heavily criticised and mocked for trying to pass off two donkeys as zebras by painting them black and white!

Egypt zoo accused of painting donkey to look like a zebra https://t.co/QpPzErSLSI pic.twitter.com/VegelwVeZQ

— BBC News Africa (@BBCAfrica) July 26, 2018

Yeah, no shit! This happened!

This treachery came to light when one of the visitors at the Cairo International Garden Municipal Park zoo, Mahmoud A. Sarhan, posted pictures with one of the ‘zebras’ and busted the sham.

As can be seen, the animal is smaller than a zebra, has pointy ears, and black smudges on his head.

This, FYI, is what a real zebra looks like.

According to one of the many experts who have weighed in on this fiasco, CBS News quoted one explaining,

“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.”

However, according to a BBC report, the zoo director Mohamed Sultan insisted to a local radio station Nogoum FM that the zebras were very much real.

Funnily enough, this isn’t a singular travesty! Back in 2009, a zoo in Gaza employed the same tactic because procuring real zebras had become impossible due to an Israeli blockade.

Twitter managed to make jokes and take offense at the news!

I mean, nobody likes to be made an ass of! You see what I did there?

So unoriginal!

https://twitter.com/jrhennessy/status/1022593900014227456

This is not a fake!

The fake zebra isn’t fake news. https://t.co/fwFMBFUvNV

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) July 26, 2018

You’ve gotta be curious!

How can any story with a photo captioned 'The zoo has denied that this is a painted donkey' be anything but *perfect*. https://t.co/y8GWuCVZbS pic.twitter.com/9lcGCfM31s

— ʎɐʍollɐפ ʇʇoɔS ˙ɹp (@scottgal) July 26, 2018

Somebody even managed to sneak in a snide remark for Trump here!

Not sure why Americans are so shocked that an Egyptian zoo turned a donkey into a zebra when we turned a jackass of our own into a President. https://t.co/BFg63MRzai

— Adam Best (@adamcbest) July 26, 2018

These Tweeple na! So savage!

This one WOKE AF person though, raised a very important question!

What if the donkey identifies as a zebra? https://t.co/wWuiNlPYLH

— Chief Hating Officer (@KeKatli) July 27, 2018

Yeah, have you thought about that? No! You only think about what you feel!

Resume-worthy skills, these!

A zoo tried to pass of a painted donkey as a zebra. Someone's gonna be adding donkey painter to their resume.

— Hal O' Be Thy Name (@Halbeerz) July 27, 2018

HA! Nice one!

Whoever painted this donkey to look like a zebra has just made an ass out of the entire Cairo zoo 😬#Egypt https://t.co/rEqTemh5X9

— Nadine Awadalla (@nadine_awadalla) July 26, 2018

Oooh I see what you did there!

I love this story ! Just goes to prove, not everything is black & white. https://t.co/vWfI9G2UG7

— Wolfmancula (@Wolfmancula) July 26, 2018

But not every tweet is full of amazement and puns, some of them have outrage too.

A user tagged PETA to intervene and stop this cruel treatment meted out to the animals.

https://twitter.com/ATEEKSTER/status/1021461683565416448

And Sarhan, the visitor who originally blew the whistle on this sham, also supported the outrage.

i'm the person on this pic and i'm standing with you to face them🤝

— سرحان (@mahmoudsarhan26) July 24, 2018

Now while we might joke around about how funny this all sounds, the fact is the animals are being put through this unwarranted trouble. Here’ hoping the true colours of this zoo and this incident are finally revealed and the animals’ safety ensured.