Why Lincolnshire donkey operator is checking some children's height and weight
A Lincolnshire donkey operator says he is putting the welfare of his animals first when he checks the height and weight of some children.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Donkey operator John Nuttall says the welfare of his animals comes first after
00:06questions were raised about why some children's height and weight were being
00:10checked. John it's always good to see you back on the beach we've seen you quite a
00:17lot on on television sort of in in recent months on Bargain Loving Brits
00:22by the sea. You're in the news again at the moment and that is over an issue of
00:30weighing some children before they have a ride. What is that all about?
00:37It's just really for the welfare of the animals. We don't want overweight children riding donkeys all day.
00:45So I've set the weight limit at six stone, ten years old, 1.4 metres high. I think that's enough for the
00:51donkeys. I'm well below the actual legal limit which is eight stone and 15 years
00:58old. That's far too high in my opinion. So we've had it for the last two or three years now that we
01:05keep to this limit and it works pretty well. Now there is strict legislation as you say
01:10behind that and it's all about the welfare of the donkeys isn't it? Yeah it's
01:14a welfare, I mean we do the same at Cleethorpes, Mabelthorpe does the same as we do at Skeegness. It is a welfare issue, I mean we don't want to be hurting the donkeys in any way. They've got no choice in the matter. If you put heavy kids on or light kids they've got no choice but I've got a choice whether to ride them or not so I'm sticking to that, that's the way we're going to go with it.
01:36And what's the response been like?
01:38There's no problem, I mean most parents come up and they understand if the child's too heavy, donkey riding days are over, they can go on the fair, they can go on the big race there but I'm afraid they can't come on the donkeys. It's just my rule and I think it's working pretty well and nobody's moaning about it.
01:57While we were there, one boy failed the height test but was invited to say hello to the donkeys and have a picture taken. He went away quite happy.