Donkey slaughter trade no longer a deal: report
The government has banned the donkey meat business after releasing the alarming fall of their numbers. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- The decreasing number of the donkeys used as a draught animal has elicited criticisms from animal rights activists as its slaughter remains unpopular
Arusha. The donkey slaughter trade may not be a promising deal after all in Tanzania, a study has shown.
The rate of the animal population, now estimated to be 300,000, has been dropping at an alarming rate.
This is among the reasons the government banned the donkey slaughter in 2017, followed by closure of some slaughter houses.
The decreasing number of the donkeys used as a draught animal has elicited criticisms from animal rights activists as its slaughter remains unpopular.
The fears are contained in a report tabled before the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) late this week on the threat facing the animal due to high demand of its skin in China.
Despite Tanzania allowing investors way back in 2014 with the licensing of two Chinese companies, the exercise could not proceed for long.
The livestock herding communities, in particular, are opposed as reduction of the animals will increase a burden to women and children.
With the cost of replacing one donkey now estimated to have gone up to Sh 300,000 per head from Sh 50,000, this will be another burden to the struggling families.
“Donkeys are a pathway out of poverty and can be a difference between hardship and modest survival,” said a report by two Committees of the regional Assembly.
These are the Committee on Communication, Trade and Investment and the Committee on Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources.
The Committee observed that although donkey slaughter houses have increased theft of the animals, the problem was more acute in Tanzania because of smuggling.
The concern on the declining population of donkeys has been largely attributed to the rising demand of skins in China.
Donkey trade in Tanzania started in 2014, with the licensing of two Chinese companies - Huacheng International in Dodoma and Fang Hua Investment Limited in Shinyanga.
Since 2014 to date, the report said, a total of 62,325 donkeys have been slaughtered by the two firms before closure of the facilities three years later.
Even then, Tanzanian donkey herders suffered despite the ban due to the existence of donkey slaughter houses in the neighbouring countries.
The two companies were back in business in February 2018 after the government issued new investment conditions for investors in the donkey slaughter trade.
However, they later closed down business last year with Fang Hua Investment Ltd having its operating licence revoked by the Export Processing Zones Authority reportedly after defying license conditions.
The company is supposed to seek a new Investment Certificate from the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) in order to operate.
However, according to the findings by the Eala Committees whose members visited the six partner states, animal protection activists in Tanzania remain opposed to the donkey trade.
“Their reduction is a setback to families because of lost income by transporting goods to markets, farming, collecting water, firewood and charcoal,” said Livingstone Masija, the CEO of Arusha Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Tanzania, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Namibia and Nigeria are among the African countries which have since closed the donkey supply routes to China to discourage the skin trade.
