This isn’t the first time animals have been painted to look like something they’re not. In 2009, a zoo in Gaza also painted two donkeys to look like zebras in order to avoid restrictions around transporting the animals. People have also been known to paint or dye domestic animals like dogs and cats, as well as wild animals like hedgehogs and turtles. Sadly, these acts can have deadly consequences if the paint or dye is toxic.
“It seems strange to subject animals to being painted for the sake of putting them on display — and in this particular case, to ostensibly dupe the public into believing they’re something else,” Joanna Grossman, equine program manager at the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), told The Dodo. “Animals in captivity — who already contend with the added stress of living in a confined and unnatural setting — deserve better treatment; they aren’t canvasses who need to be smeared with pigment, resin, or other substances.”
Whatever is going on at this Cairo Zoo, it’s bizarre. And hopefully short-lived.