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A Moroccan woman awoke to discover, to her horror, a newborn foal lying still wet at the feet of her tethered 14-year-old female mule. As local superstition links a mule giving birth with the end of the world, the owner was understandably quite concerned. Not knowing where else to turn for advice, she contacted the London-based Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad, which monitors mule welfare in Morocco. SPANA recommended carrying out blood tests to check the identity of the foal, which were carried out at the Hassan II veterinary institute in Rabat. Writing in the January issue of The Veterinary Record, Gigi Kay of SPANA says the tests revealed the foal was the offspring of the mule and a donkey. It’s the fourth mule to have given birth: one did so in Nebraska in 1985 and two others in China in 1988.