PETRA — Herds of hard-working donkeys once carried hordes of tourists
on the rocky paths of Jordan's Petra, but visitor numbers crashed amid the
pandemic and the loyal animals are left without a job.
اضافة اعلان
"Before coronavirus, we all had work," said Abdulrahman Ali,
a 15-year-old donkey owner at the ancient rock-carved desert city, where the
sure-footed animals carry tourists up steep paths in the blazing sun.
"The bedouins of Petra made a living and fed their animals," he
said, sitting waiting for a handout of fodder from a charity, explaining that
many owners today are struggling to meet the cost of feeding them.
In 2019, the number of visitors to the
UNESCO World Heritage site topped a
million for the first time.
But in March 2020, the famous tourist destination was closed, and the
crucial income from the tourists dried up.
Dependent on
tourism
"When tourism stopped, nobody could buy fodder or medicine
anymore," said Ali, who could earn as much as $280 on a good day,
supporting his mother and two brothers.
"Anyone who has a little amount of money now spends it on his own food,
not his animal."
Before the pandemic, tourism made up more than a tenth of Jordan's GDP, but
revenues slumped from $5.8 billion in 2019 to $1 billion last year, according
to government figures.
Since Petra reopened in May, tourist numbers have been slow to
rebound.
Only some 200 visitors a day come to Petra, compared to more than 3,000
before the pandemic hit, said Suleiman Farajat, heading the Petra Development
and Tourism Regional Authority.
Farajat said some 200 guides used as many as 800 animals — including horses,
camels, and mules as well as donkeys — for tourist rides across the desert
site.
The economic ripple effect of tourism was widespread.
"Before the crisis, 80 percent of the inhabitants of the region
depended directly or indirectly on tourism," Farajat said.
"With the pandemic, not only working animal owners were affected, but
also hotels, restaurants, those with souvenir shops or stores, and hundreds of
employees have lost their jobs."
Many donkey owners are turning to a clinic supported by the animal rights
group PETA, where vets treat maltreated and malnourished donkeys for free.
"Before coronavirus, my family and I owned seven donkeys working in
Petra," said Mohammad Al-Badoul, 23, waiting with four other donkey owners
to fill a sack with animal feed.
"We had to sell them for lack of income. Now we only have one, and I
can barely feed it."
'Starving'
Egyptian vet Hassan Shatta, an equine surgery specialist who runs the
PETA clinic, said he launched a donkey-feeding program late last year.
"During the
COVID-19 lockdown, and with the lack of tourism, people
could not afford to feed their animals anymore," Shatta said.
"Some of them ended up starving and we picked them up brought them
here," he added, noting some 250 animals had been treated, with some 10-15
cases arriving a day.
In the past, PETA had treated animals with deep cuts from being beaten or
abused, but Farajat, from Petra's tourism authority, says the working
conditions of the donkeys is now "not that bad".
But there are plans to replace some of the traditional donkeys with a new
system of 20 electric cars introduced by the tourism board next month.
The cars will be "driven by the animal owners," Farajat said.
Switching to electric cars will, Farajat hopes, put an end to the criticisms
against the mistreatment inflicted on animals.
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