Visitors to Mijas Pueblo have long met its working donkeys on the village streets. Now, those animals are a step closer to a quiet sanctuary as Mijas Town Hall has received the project plans for ‘El Burrito’, a recreational park to be built on the village’s Vial Sur.

Room for up to 48 donkeys

Up to 48 animals will have a home here, in a space fully adapted to their needs. Adult donkeys needing time to recover will also be welcome before they are moved to new homes. Plans cover two separate areas: a refuge for the animals’ care, and a visitor centre dedicated to the donkey, one of Mijas’ best-known attractions.

Welfare is front and centre of the design. The refuge will have grazing areas, stables, quarantine pens, veterinary shelters and handling zones, plus paths, fencing and waste facilities.

Beds in the stables will be renewable and absorbent, so the animals will not have to lie directly on concrete, much gentler on their joints and hooves. The Town Hall has also required compartments big enough for the donkeys to walk in, turn around, move freely and lie down. Each stable will have a drinking trough, lighting and fixing rings to make cleaning and maintenance easier.

Buildings will follow the lie of the land, using timber, planted roofs and earthy colours so they fit into the landscape. Natural ventilation and drainage-friendly flooring are also included.

Extra care for donkeys who need it

A veterinary shelter, larger than the ordinary stables, will look after animals needing observation, rest or special treatment. It will make life easier for the staff and allow care tailored to each animal’s needs.

Anyone interested will also be able to learn about the donkeys too. An existing building will be renovated as a cultural and educational interpretation centre, doubling as the visitor reception. It will explain the donkeys’ characteristics and their place in Mijas’ identity.

Donkeys became famous here through the ‘burro-taxi’, the village’s tradition of donkey rides in the early 1960s, when workers riding home were asked by visitors for photos and rides, the council’s tourism website currently lists 60 burro-taxis still work in the service today.

For even more information on the project, you can see our earlier report on the El Burrito donkey sanctuary here by EWN.

E-scooter riders in Spain now need a helmet, insurance and a spot on the official register, yet nobody checks whether they can actually ride their vehicle properly or handle the traffic on the road. A Málaga surgeon who operates on riders after the worst crashes thinks that gap needs closing.

A surgeon wants riders tested like other road users 

Rafael López Arévalo, head of orthopaedic surgery and traumatology at Hospital Quirónsalud Málaga, believes e-scooter riders should have to pass a test comparable to the ones other road users face before they head out among cars, buses and vans.

His case is built on what he’s seeing in theatre. He estimates that 30 to 40 per cent of the e-scooter accident patients his team treats end up needing surgery, with some of the more complex fractures potentially affecting their ability to work further down the line.

That’s an estimate for the patients who reach his team, though, and not a figure for every scooter crash in Málaga. Earlier University of Málaga research found bruising was by far the most common injury among scooter patients seen in emergency departments. 

Riders are sharing the road with cars

Since January 2021, e-scooters have been banned from pavements across Spain and capped at 25km/h, which moved riders off the pavement and onto the road alongside motor traffic. López Arévalo’s argument is about whether riders really understand what that involves. Plenty of people hop on with the attitude of ‘it’s only a scooter, how hard can it be?’, and a test is designed to challenge exactly that assumption. 

For parents whose teenagers ride to school, commuters weaving through the city and residents stepping off the kerb as a scooter comes the other way, it’s a question that comes up every single day.

What the university research did and didn’t find 

The University of Málaga (UMA) study behind EWN’s August coverage analysed more than 400 patients treated in emergency departments between 2018 and 2022, and it also looked at what changed once scooters moved onto the road.

Pedestrians being knocked down fell from 10.9 per cent of cases to 5.2 per cent, while collisions with motor vehicles rose from 8.8 per cent to 18 per cent. However, the researchers said in their January release that they hadn’t seen any increase in the overall severity of injuries, despite those extra collisions.

So the research doesn’t show that moving riders onto the road made injuries worse. The surgeon’s estimate is a separate observation, based on the patients his own team is treating now.

Helmets are compulsory, but there’s still no test 

Since Thursday October 1, riders across Spain have had to wear a certified helmet, with fines of around €200 for those who don’t. The scooter itself must also be registered with the DGT (Spain’s traffic authority) and insured. However, there’s still no test or licence needed to ride one. 

Until that changes, riders’ best protection is the helmet and the 25km/h limit they’re already bound by. UMA’s researchers go a step further and recommend full-face helmets, as so many of the fractures they recorded were to the face and jaw.