(must not be a PETA office in this town!)

In Turkish village, the law is no ass

ISTANBUL (AFP) - Faced with mounting protests from their constituents about the depredations of an irascible ass, the elders of a Turkish village held a court session and formally sentenced the creature to death, it was reported.

The delinquent donkey was apprehended in the village of Akpinar, in the northeastern Turkish region of Erzurum, after its latest attack left an 80-year-old man in a coma, the Zaman newspaper said.

The ass, which apparently had no owner, had previously attacked other villagers, including fellow animals such as cows and sheep.

But the attack on the old man, who was bitten all over his body when the donkey set upon him as he returned from an early-morning trip to the mosque, was too much to take.

The animal was given a tranquilliser shot and then put in a local paddock to cool off pending the carrying out of its sentence.

The article did not say if, how, or when, the execution would take place.