Seaside donkey proprietor John Nuttall has sparked debate by insisting children undergo a weight check before being allowed to ride his donkeys in Skegness. The 61-year-old has faced criticism for allegedly fat-shaming youngsters, yet many are applauding his decision.

With over four decades of experience providing donkey rides in Skegness and Cleethorpes, Nuttall has introduced a weight restriction to safeguard his donkeys in the face of increasing concerns about childhood obesity. He’s set up weighing scales adjacent to his mobile paddock, complete with a sign detailing the requirements: under ten years old, shorter than 4ft 6ins, and lighter than six stone (38kg) for a £4 jaunt along the promenade.

  • snekerpimp@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    That seems fair to the donkeys. Overloading pack animals is cruel to them and a serious issue. Humans have weight limits to what they can lift, so it seems right to recognize the animals limits.

    • MTK@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Oh yes, the fairness of the situation is very important to the owner that enslaves his donkey…

      It’s more likely a business decision: donkey gets hurt = down time.

      Fuck all of these people who abuse and enslave animals for profit

      • BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Of course this gets downvoted. Donkeys love carrying shit around, everyone knows that.

  • barsquid@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    These are live animals. As long as he isn’t mocking these children after they’re weighed everyone can fuck off with the complaints.

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      All he has to do is stop saying “nyah nyah, scram fattie!” and I’m fine with it. If he would just stop saying that part, I’d be fine with it.

  • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    Let’s face it, the only people getting upset about this are the land-whales whose obese kids are everybody’s fault but theirs

    • HumanPenguin
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      4 months ago

      While Limiting weight on a donkey is perfectly reasonable.

      Calling people land whales is fucking pathetic. You have fuck all idea of the medical history of these people. And arseholes like you are why folks like this guy suffer.

      If little shitheads like you, did not spend their time insulting people who have done fuck all to them. The mental health of these people would mean they are less delicate when real life interferes.

    • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Are you missing a /s?

      You know there are many kids who have weight issues due to disability, right? Parents are just trying to have a normal childhood for their kids and are trying to include them as much as possible. It’s understandable the donkeys have physical limitations; it’s also understandable that parents might be disappointed if their kids don’t fit the restrictions. It also sounds like he’s rude about it/makes comments when they weigh too much, but the article was hard to read so idk for sure what exactly is going on (popups).

      You can be kind to both groups. That you’d talk so badly about heavier people says a lot about you, not them.

      • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        If a parent insists on hurting a donkey simply because their kid throws a wobbly, it doesn’t matter the reason for their obesity, they’re still cunts

        So are donkeys mind you.

        I’d agree with the guy in the article who has to put up with both types of cunt, day in, day out lol

        • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          I never said they deserve to hurt an animal. Just that disappointment is understandable and there’s no need to bully them.

          • Nerdulous@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            Do you know how rare that condition is? It’s about 1 in 20,000 compared to 1 in 5 children being obese.

            • wren
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              4 months ago

              can’t believe I have to say this, but even if kids have no genetic or medical reason for being fat, bullying children relentlessly is still unkind and unhelpful

              • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
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                4 months ago

                If your dog constantly ate other dog’s shit off the ground, would you smack its nose every time it did it, or would you just say that’s how he expresses his feelings and we should encourage shit-eating?

                There’s a reason the phrase about being cruel to be kind exists

      • BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Is that some american disease where you feed your kids McDonald’s and then for some reason it doesn’t lose weight? Do these fat kids have some sort of membrane to pull calories out of the air without feeding them? Because that’s a crazy superpower.

        • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Yes, blame children. How old were you when you lost weight, which was very very hard to do?

          And definitely let’s not look at this systemically, like at government and corporate level for what food is allowed and what guidelines are put out there, along with lack of medical care in many instances.

          But yeah, those stupid fat kids can’t pull themselves up by their bootstraps and be a picture of perfect health, so let’s be bigoted and ableist /s

  • threeduck@aussie.zone
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    4 months ago

    No, the guy hasn’t “sparked debate”. The single complainant cited is from some obesity alliance, who says it’s wrong to weigh children in public.

    OP SLAMMED for sharing poor quality news.

    • Flax
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      4 months ago

      It’s like how America thinks Meghan Sussex/Markle sparked debate here when people didn’t even care that much

  • Dorkyd68@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Good for him honestly, he shouldn’t subject his beautiful animal to weights that may be harmful to its body. If parents don’t like it, then don’t go to him.

  • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    I would have expected the weight requirement, so they don’t have to control the age and height. Interesting that they still have those…

    • Blackmist
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      4 months ago

      That’s Reach Plc for you.

      Owns every regional news site in the UK. Seemingly publishes shit on random ones, like this which is Wales Online, but apparently fat kids on the opposite side of the country are considered newsworthy.

      I’m just glad they got rid of the side swiping on articles, where a clumsy scroll would just load an entirely different page for no fucking reason.

  • McKee@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    How about you stop exploiting donkeys all together for your personal gain?

    • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝OPMA
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      4 months ago

      For the record: no donkeys have been exploited by feddit.uk or at least not by me. I have a dozen ducks on a treadmill powering the site though.

    • MTK@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Yeah, people look at this and think this is some sort of thoughtful and kind decision, when in reality this is a business decision to keep the donkey running. Because at the end of the day this donkey is enslaved for this mans gain.

      I wonder how people would feel about a headline that looks like this “slave owner buys high quality tools and proper lifting equipment to help reduce stress from phisical labor for his slaves” what a saint right?

      • FozzyOsbourne@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Mate, if you think running donkey rides is the same as owning slaves then you really need to rethink your world view a bit. I’m all for reducing animal cruelty but I don’t think this argument is helping.

        • MTK@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Yeah, he also didn’t buy the donkey high quality equipment right? Have you ever heard of an hyperbole?