Special Projects Burro pops his hooves

It's with heavy hearts that we announce today the death of Aladdin – our Special Projects Burro. Aladdin poses for the camera Our asinine mascot was perfectly OK yesterday afternoon when I popped out to see that all was well with the donkey herd, but a couple of hours later he'd inexplicably gone hooves-up. There was no …

[Nya]

Awww

Poor lil fellow :(

[Don Jefe]

Bummer.

Sorry for the loss. We had a horse die late last year, it sucks.

Too bad you buried the burro. If you had cremated it you could have sent some ashes up with LOHAN.

[Parax]

RIP Aladdin.

[Eugene Crosser]

Working donkeys in the poorest countries have a life expectancy of 12–15 years;[14] in more prosperous countries, they may have a lifespan of 30 to 50 years.[5]

... and he was less than two years old. so sad. poor chap!

[Hieronymus Howerd]

Hm, yes.

Sad, but also highly suspicious. Surely at least some sort of cursory autopsy is in order, rather than "oh, whoops he's dead, quick let's hide him underground"?

[Alister]

Bye, bye Burro...

Sorry to hear that, a real shame.

[Charlie Clark]

Skulduggery

Are you sure it wasn't sabotage by a rival team possibly hoping to hijack any future asstronautical escapades.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Skulduggery

Possibly the Russians trying to protect their lead in flying donkey technology?

[Anonymous Coward]

Disposal of Aladdin via medieval "Python" methods?

Couldn't you just sling it over the fence at the French?

[Richard Ball]

What?

No comments about dropping dead donkeys?

Call this a tabloid?

Shame on you all.

(RIP Burro)

[TeeCee]

Re: What?

If you'd given me a fighting chance of getting in before posting that, there would have been one.....

SPB needs a new mascot for the LOHAN programme then. If you have a flock of chickens, I suggest a large cock.

[The last doughnut]

RIP

On the plus side, it gives your local eaterie some fresh protein to put in one of their post-pub nosh specials.

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Sad news

He has joined the choir invisible

He has gone to meet his maker

It is an ex-donkey

RIP Aladdin

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sad news

'E's pining for Blackpool'

[Alex C]

Sorry for your loss

I do have another theory though.

I've always thought that the Playmonaut had a nasty glint to his eye. Can we rule out ritual sacrifice to aid his upcoming mission? He's touched space and that changes a person, not always for the better.

[Neil 38]

Did I end up on imgur by mistake?

[Tim Bergel]

What a pity

... hope Katerina is not too upset

[LinkOfHyrule]

Awww, please accept my condolences.

[Dave 62]

RIP

This is an international tragedy.

Aladdin needs a proper send off, something serious.. like a statue.. or.. a satelite!

Or.. a statue, on the moon, built by moon printers (with big conveyors)

Alternately a bit of digging up, cremating and sending into spaaaace might be fitting.

Send him to heaven!

[Harvey Trowell]

Possibly a throat infection?

He seems a little hoarse in the video.

Condolences (and apologies for the above).

[Annihilator]

Pain in the arse

Or ass?...

Sad day, poor Aladdin. His reign/rein was short lived but at least he had the honour of being the first SPBSPB. Condolences to his mum Susi.

[Cliff]

Awww - you must be gutted. Keep some hair trimmings to put on LOHAN, a metaphoric sky burial.

[Anonymous Coward]

Alas poor donkey.

Maybe something he ate didn't agree with him. What did you do with all the leftover parmo, poutine, kapsalon, quesadillas, mealy pudding and migas, anyway? If he's been snaffling scraps out of your bin, it's a testimony to his sheer heroic endurance that he even made it this far...

[Chris Hawkins]

RIP - Special Agent Aladdin

"....made doubly onerous by the circling presence of my mutt pack, who sensed the biggest nosh-up since they downed a small wild boar a couple of years back...."

They were probably thinking "Vale! Burritos!"

Damn good thing they didn't scoff him! I can see the local rag making allusions to "perro-nitis"!

A final thought, why was Aladdin not cremated and his ashes scheduled for "Scotty-type" disposal on one of Mr Musk's next orbital perambulations?

Headline: "Dragon torches Donkey"?

This would have made him the first El Reg operative to have made it to the heavens!

Descansa en paz, el burro Aladdin!!

[The FunkeyGibbon]

I'm not sure Aladdin is dead...

I think he'll be on the board of RIM before the day is out, along with all the other donkeys.

[Dave 32]

RIP

RIP, Aladdin. :-(

Dave

[Mostly_Harmless]

RIP

Condolences

That is all

[Anonymous Coward]

Very sad

And so young.

[FrankAlphaXII]

Im sorry to hear it Lester, I dont know if your family considered him a pet or not, but its always tough.

[Confuciousmobil]

So sad..

Couldn't you have had him stuffed (preferably in an amusing pose) and havi him in El Reg's office?

Is it to late to dig him up and have him stuffed?

Or have the Russians/Chinese already stolen his corpse to get your trade secrets?

[yoinkster]

Gutted, I remember saying to you in Sept '10 that that was one nice ass.

Terrible loss :(

[Intractable Potsherd]

Like others ...

... I'd just like to add my condolences. I hope it hasn't been too upsetting for the younger members of the family.

[Eddy Ito]

Tragic

A pint to celebrate the life and memory of a very special burro.