Santorini: PETA activist allegedly punched as attacks on animal-rights campaigners resurface

Three women, two banners and a pair of robotic legs were meant to form another protest against the use of donkeys and mules on Santorini. Instead, PETA Deutschland says the action ended with insults, threats and physical violence.

The incident allegedly took place on Friday morning, September 4, on the Karavolades steps. The activists had planned to protest the use of equines as “tourist taxis” while filming the area. PETA says a group of muleteers tried to stop the recording, destroyed the women’s banners, abused them verbally and forced them down the steps.

Footage released by the organization appears to show men pushing the activists and pressing them against a wall. PETA says one of the men struck one of the women in the face. The organization has announced that it will take legal action and is asking tourists and residents who witnessed the incident to come forward.

The unfinished action also carried a pointed message. The activists had brought exoskeletons, mechanical devices that assist movement and climbing, as a modern alternative for the more than 500 steps linking the old port with Fira. PETA says it offered to help the Municipality of Thira and the port authority finance such devices if tourist riding ends.

PETA says this is not the first violent confrontation connected with attempts to document conditions for the island’s working animals. In 2018, animal lovers and activists reported that muleteers seized and burned banners, destroyed a camera and threw personal belongings toward a cliff. A 16-year-old suffered an eye injury, two people went to hospital and others sustained lighter injuries. In 2019, South African activist Luke Barritt and Polish cameraman Wiktor Dobraczynski, from Network for Animals, alleged that about 10 men attacked them while they filmed the animals’ working conditions. According to the organization, Barritt was beaten and forced toward the edge of a cliff while being threatened with being thrown over it.