Greece's Donkey Weight Limit: Animal Welfare or Discrimination?

Most working donkeys in Santorini should carry no more than 112 pounds. The law Greece passed sets the limit at 220. That gap tells you almost everything about how this rule came to exist, and why it took as long as it did.

Greece updated its animal welfare regulations to limit how much weight donkeys, mules, and horses can carry. For Santorini specifically, the rule that drew international attention states that anyone wishing to ride the island's donkeys must weigh less than 100 kilograms, or 220 pounds. When news of the rule spread widely, the reaction online was swift: critics called it fatphobic, a ban on tourists based on body size.

What Was Actually Happening Before the Law

The rule did not appear out of nowhere. For years before the regulation was formalized, animal welfare groups had been documenting conditions on the island's famous donkey route, the steep path connecting the port to the town of Fira that hundreds of thousands of cruise ship passengers travel each year. Photos and videos circulated widely showing working animals with visible wounds, signs of spinal strain, and clear exhaustion after repeated trips in extreme summer heat.

A petition on Change.org titled "Stop Animal Abuse of Donkeys and Horses in Santorini" gathered nearly 109,000 signatures. A separate group, Help the Santorini Donkeys, formally petitioned for a weight restriction after documenting a pattern of overweight tourists choosing to ride rather than walk the steep route. Volunteer Elisavet Chatzi, who participated in peaceful protests in Santorini over the animals' treatment, described the eventual law as the result of years of hard work paying off.

What the Law Actually Says

The regulation passed by the Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food does three things: it caps rider weight at 220 pounds, it requires the animals receive at least 30 minutes of exercise per day, and it mandates access to a steady supply of drinking water. The law applies to the activity of riding the animals. It does not restrict who can visit the island.

Help the Santorini Donkeys notes that the 220-pound limit is already at the upper ceiling of what a donkey can physically carry, and that most of the working animals on the island should ideally carry no more than 112 pounds. The legal limit accommodates the maximum capacity of the animal, not the recommended one.

Why the Law Has Not Solved the Problem

Here is the detail that changes the entire debate: the law exists on paper, but enforcement has been nearly absent in practice. PETA Germany's exposé in 2018 was part of what accelerated the regulation's passage. But eyewitness footage from 2019 and again more recently shows conditions that suggest the rules have been neither consistently observed nor enforced on the ground.

Animal welfare organizations have continued to document violations. Those images and reports surface periodically online, often framed as though a new ban has just been announced, when in reality the same regulation has been in place for years without meaningful compliance. The island receives over two million visitors in a single year, with hundreds of thousands arriving by cruise ship and funneling through the same narrow route. The pressure on the animals remains, regardless of what the law says.

The weight limit is real. The enforcement is not.