192 | Donkeys these animals have the right to respectful treatment The labels assigned to them, such as pest, exotic invader, and feral have no relevance outside human constructions Many believe that all species and all individual animals, regardless of the value humans may place upon them, positive or negative, have an equal right not to be harmed Critics of the destruction of donkeys point out that such policies support the premise that humans have the right to destroy elements of nature whenever they choose Donkeys are caught between a rock and a hard place, literally and philosophically, as they are gunned down from helicopters in isolated rocky outcrops in northern Australia, their bodies left to rot where they fall Further Reading Armstrong, S and Boltzler, R eds 1993 Environmental ethics: Divergence and convergence New York: McGraw-Hill Beja-Pereira, A., England, P R., Ferrand, N., Jordan, S., Bakhiet, A., Abdalla, M., et al 2004 African origins of the domestic donkey Science 304:1781 Brookshier, Frank 1974 The burro Norman: University of Oklahoma Press Crosby, A 1986 Ecological imperialism: The biological expansion of Europe 900–1900 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Dent, A 1972 Donkey: The story of the ass from east to west London: Harrap Low, T 1999 Feral future: The untold story of Australia’s exotic invaders Melbourne: Penguin Marshall, F 2000 The origins and spread of domestic animals in East Africa In The origins and development of African livestock: Archaeology, genetics, linguistics and ethnography, edited by Blench, R M and MacDonald, K C., 191–221 London: UCL Press Shelton, J 2004 Killing animals that don’t fit in: Moral dimensions of habitat restoration Between the Species http://cla.calpoly.edu/ bts/issue_04/04shelton.htm Tobias, M., and Morrison, J 2006 Donkey: The mystique of equus asinus San Francisco, Tulsa: Council Oak Books Jill Bough DRAIZE TEST See Toxicity Testing and Animals