There is something terribly wrong with Portuguese animals!
Old ladies say it all the time: it is deadly for donkeys to have any brain activity (A pensar morreu o burro). Poor animals… I’ve never witnessed it, but I can picture a cute little donkey strolling around and suddenly drop like flies.
Not everything is bad news, though: the young are really smart, I suppose, because they keep saying the old ones can´t learn languages (Burro velho não aprende línguas).
I don´t quite get the whole animal scenarios, but now I know that each monkey has its own tree branch to stand still (Cada macaco no seu galho). Portuguese people really love animals; for example, did you know you can be arrested for having or not having a dog (Preso por ter cão, preso por não ter)?
And then I started realizing: maybe all this walking dead animals thing is a major public health issue, and it’s the reason why the Portuguese don’t look at horses’ teeth (A cavalo dado não se olha o dente).