Donkeys Are Not Allowed To Nap In Bathtubs, Dear
Category: Strange Laws 4th March 2026
Listen, only in this country do you get laws that read like angry notes left on a landlord's fridge. In Arizona there is a genuine ordinance - yes, a real law - that makes it illegal for a donkey to sleep in a bathtub.
Before you laugh me out of the room, understand this: the thing did not appear out of some cartoonist's imagination. The prohibition grew from an actual nuisance problem. Folks used to put their critters in old metal tubs on their property. Then there were floods, animals floated away, insurance suits, and towns concluded that telling donkeys to move along was cheaper than a courtroom circus.
The law reads like municipal municipal housekeeping with a snort of common sense: don't let an animal use a bathtub as a bed and create a hazard. Nobody was trying to start a moral debate about where braying animals should rest; they were trying to stop property damage and folks suing each other because a storm turned a bathtub into a boat.
Enforcement is about as frequent as a Broadway matinee at 3 a.m. You are not going to get a SWAT team for a nap-snoozing equid. Mostly these ordinances sit in the code as reminders that city planners once had to untangle very specific nonsense. But the law lives on and the story stays juicy - which is why I love it. It's bureaucratic practicality married to small-town absurdity.
I remember years ago, when I was poking around little towns for a column, a fellow swore his uncle kept a bathtub on the porch as a summer paddling pool for a stubborn old mule. I told him, honey, keep it out of Arizona. He laughed. I did not tell him about the statute. Some things you keep for your rolodex of weirdness.
So next time you hear a strange law and want to call it a novelty, remember: many of them are born from somebody's miserable Tuesday. Donkeys in bathtubs were a problem once. The law is the punchline, and the truth is somehow even better.