Story By: Jonathan Macias, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

Video Credit: CEN/@PartidoPACMA

This is the moment a donkey is whipped while pulling a heavy weight along the ground in an event branded “cruelty disguised as tradition” by Spanish politicians.

The incident was filmed in the municipality of Leioa in the province of Biscay located in the northern Spanish autonomous community of Basque Country and was shared on Twitter by the Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (Pacma).

The political party’s video has been viewed over 113,000 times on Twitter and prompted outrage among many netizens.

The traditional event, known as ‘Asto Probak’ (‘Donkey Tests’ in the Basque language) took place during the area’s annual festival.

In the video, the black donkey is seen being whipped with a stick as it is expected to pull a weight as far as possible in a given time.

Reports said that the weights are often as heavy as 600 kilogrammes (1,323 lbs).

Pacma called for the “end of this activity” and claimed that the suffering donkey’s hooves were bleeding at the end of the controversial Asto Probak event, slamming it as “cruelty disguised as tradition”.

Many netizens agreed and comments on the post included “the real donkey is the moron beating it” and “it is incredible what people do for ‘fun’”.

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