Exploding donkey

There have been at least two documented incidents of donkeys being used to deliver bombs. Both occurred in Middle Eastern conflicts in the 2000s .

West Bank

One donkey was exploded near a checkpoint in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on January 26, 2003. No humans died in the attack, and it was uncertain as to whether the attack was meant specifically to kill Israeli soldiers; the attack coincided with Israeli advances into the Gaza Strip.

The attack did provoke a response from PETA president Ingrid Newkirk, who, after receiving many complaints, wrote a letter to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat asking him to encourage others to "leave the animals out of this conflict". In the letter, she cited historical examples of US, UK, and Al Qaeda-sponsored abuses of other animals in conflicts, specifically noting dogs were simply left in Vietnam by the US during the Vietnam War, despite the fact that they were "loyal." She thus came to the conclusion that:

"Animals claim no nation. They are in perpetual involuntary servitude to all humankind, and although they pose no threat and own no weapons, human beings always win in the undeclared war against them. For animals, there is no Geneva Convention and no peace treaty—just our mercy."

Iraq

In Ramadi, Iraq, in 2004 a donkey was loaded with explosives and set off towards a US-run checkpoint. It exploded before it was able to injure or kill anybody but itself. The incident, along with a number of similar incidents involving dogs, fuelled fears of terrorist practices of using living animals as weapons, a change from an older practice of using the bodies of dead animals to hold explosives. To one official, this was a simple variation of using "mentally retarded people for operations during the elections." A colonel added that "using people and animals" was a terrorist tactic that seemed to be replacing "car bombs."

See also

• Exploding animal

References

• CBS news: Israel Moves Deep Into Gaza January 26, 2003.
• PETA Leave the Animals in Peace: PETA's letter to Yasser Arafat February 3, 2003.
• The Standard (originally from The Los Angeles Times): Dogs of war can be friend or foe August 12, 2005.