Donkey trade will destroy population

While some Namibians have welcomed the proposal of Chinese donkey abattoirs in Namibia for the promise of jobs, experts warn that the alarming demand for donkey hides could hurt Namibia more than it would help.

Africa has become a key target for the Chinese-fuelled donkey hide trade after the country's own donkey population dropped dramatically from a reported 11 million in the 1990s to about 3 million.

The decimation of Chinese donkeys is fuelled by a surge in demand for the hide's gelatine that is used to make e'jiao, a popular traditional medicine which the Chinese believe is an effective sexual stimulant with anti-ageing properties.

But those who have kept a close eye on the booming trade in Africa warn that the industry has reached crisis point, and countries being targeted should ensure they know about the high risks associated with welcoming a Chinese-backed donkey slaughter industry.

Researchers across Africa warn that the donkey hide trade has an overwhelmingly negative impact on communities that still depend on donkeys as a mode of transport and otherwise.

As the demand for donkey hide outstrips supply, several countries, including Egypt, South Africa and Tanzania have reported an emerging black market in stolen donkeys, which are slaughtered illegally or sold to slaughterhouses.

Communities that depend on their donkeys are facing losing their independence and being pushed deeper into poverty as their valuable pack animals disappear.

“Wherever we have seen legally established slaughterhouses, and a legal trade, we have seen the theft/poaching of donkeys and their slaughter and skinning in the bush - in some cases, when they were still alive,” Alex Mayers, head of programmes at the Donkey Sanctuary, told Namibian Sun.

He said while the trade may be legal it is mostly “unregulated and the ever-increasing value of a donkey hide means that criminality is rife. We have seen strong links to wildlife crime; the criminals sourcing and exporting donkey hides to China are also involved in smuggling pangolin scales, abalone shells, tiger skins and more.”

As such, local institutions like the Windhoek SPCA as well as the Outjo Community Committee are urging authorities to resist the temptation to merely open the doors to the Chinese donkey trade, and to instead ensure they make a well-informed decision prior to allowing the industry to take root.

“Why would Namibia allow its people to lose a resource in the form of donkeys that sustain entire communities, without researching whether it was a good idea or not?” Mayers asked.

“Right now, the donkey hide trade is decimating donkey populations worldwide. It is unregulated, but being facilitated by the licencing of slaughterhouses by countries such as Namibia. The least Namibia could and should do right now is to halt the trade and undertake a full impact assessment of its current and future impact.”

Monique Redecker, Windhoek SPCA's CEO, said the organisation agrees that an expert-led impact assessment is critical to measure the various impacts of the industry.

She said government should also take into account “why six African countries recently banned donkey abattoirs as well as the export of live donkeys and donkey products.”

Botswana recently followed in the footsteps of Niger, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Gambia to ban the trade and export of live donkeys and donkey products from slaughterhouses.



What's the problem?

Out of the nine donkey slaughterhouses that operated in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania in the last 12 months, only two are still operating and both are under serious pressure to stop as communities and governments realise their true cost, Mayers said.

Namibian Sun has reported on the planned construction of a donkey abattoir in Outjo by a Chinese company Fu Hai Trading Enterprises, a plan that has been met with widespread protest and demands from the community that numerous impact studies first be conducted before operations start.

Fu Hai Trading told the Outjo town council they planned to slaughter an estimated 120 donkeys per day.

Mayers warned that “as a species, donkeys are notoriously difficult to farm at any scale in acceptable welfare conditions, and Namibia needs to ask whether it has the spare water, fodder, and other necessary needs for the scale of industry being considered which would require hundreds of thousands of breeding mares to sustain the throughput being proposed.”

Taking into account the second proposed donkey abattoir at Okahandja, Mayers said “the two proposed slaughterhouses would have a capacity of hundreds of donkeys per day but as donkeys breed slowly with poor reproduction rates and a slow rate of growth, Namibia's donkeys would be gone within a few years.”

Based on 2014 figures released by the Namibian government that showed a population of just under 160 000 donkeys in Namibia at that time, two donkey abattoirs could half the current population in just over a year.

In line with an estimate by the Abattoirs Association in Namibia that around 2 500 litres of water is needed to slaughter one animal, the Fu Hai Enterprise will require at least 300 000 litres of water per day.

An African Horse Sickness outbreak at a Kenyan donkey slaughterhouse recently underlined “the considerable risk to equines and other animals in the vicinity.”

Moreover, without strict adherence to procedures and regulations, which it is unclear are in place in Namibia for equine abattoirs, donkey slaughterhouses pose “a significant risk to handlers and slaughterhouse workers of zoonotic diseases such as anthrax, rabies and others.”

“Namibia should assess the size of its current donkey population, and consider what impact the planned off take of donkeys would have on the ability of its donkey-dependent communities to earn a livelihood from their working animals.”

He added that Namibia should prevent traders in neighbouring countries like Botswana from shipping in donkeys to be slaughtered in Namibia's abattoirs.



JANA-MARI SMITH