Parasailing donkey dies in Russia

MOSCOW - A donkey who last summer shot to international fame
after being forced to parasail above the beaches of southern Russia
has died of a heart attack, her minders said on Saturday.

A veterinarian said the heart attack was likely the result of
 stress brought on by the experience, which sparked an
international outcry from human-rights activists and a
campaign by a British tabloid to rescue the beast.

The female donkey named Anapka made headlines
worldwide and attracted the attention of local police
after beachgoers in Russia's southern village of
Golubitskaya were stunned when they saw a braying,
apparently terrified donkey soaring in the
 blue skies over the Sea of Azov.

The donkey was attached to a parachute pulled by
a speedboat and was in the skies as a result of an
impromptu advertising campaign by several
entrepreneurial Russians to attract beachgoers
 to indulge in the thrill of parasailing.

The donkey died last month at stables just outside
 Moscow where she ended up after her
heart-wrenching ordeal, her minders said.

Anapka was old but looked healthy and was very quiet when she
 arrived in the stables in the fall, Yulia Dobrovolskaya,
the stables' manager, told AFP. Soon after she began to refuse food and water.

"She got sick in December. She became very weak," said Dobrovolskaya
 adding that vets had to force-feed her for more than a week before she died.

A veterinarian who examined the donkey said she was probably
around 40 years old but the most likely cause of death was a heart attack.

"An autopsy showed she died from myocardial infarction,
said Dobrovolskaya, chalking up her illness to the stress
 endured during her parasailing experience.

"A young animal may recover but for an old one there
 is no way back," said Dobrovolskaya, a veterinarian by training.

Local media said in the summer the donkey was so high
in the sky the children on the beach cried and asked
their parents why a dog was tied to a parachute.

"The donkey landed in an atrocious manner: it was dragged several
metres along the water, after which the animal was pulled
out half-alive onto the shore," local newspaper Taman said at the time.

The July stunt aroused a storm of protest from animal-rights
 activists including French actress Brigitte Bardot
who wrote to President Dmitry Medvedev.

The animal became the subject of British tabloid hysteria and
The Sun published a series of stories saying it tracked
down the poor animal and rescued it from its owner.

The tabloid's journalists moved the animal to an elite
Kremlin-connected equestrian school before Anapka
found a final home at Dobrovolskaya's stables.

Picture taken on July 9, 2010 shows a donkey attached
 to a parachute flying over a beach in Golubitskaya.

Check HERE for the actual video from Russian's News Channel

All of us at TPDR would love to get our
 hands on those "entrepreneurs"