Donkeys at risk of becoming extinct due to illegal trade

Sadik Maulid, a native of Kaliua District in Tabora Region sensed something was wrong when he recently returned home for a three-week holiday. In the past, donkeys were frequently seen in the region but he did not see any this time around.

The resident of Tabata in Dar es Salaam has not seen the beast of burden since 2012 when he moved to the commercial city.

His two children, aged six and four, have never seen a donkey because they were born and raised in the city, and even when they go to Tabora, they do not see the animals.

“Frankly speaking, this animal is becoming rare,” he says, adding; “This is not normal.”

“In the past, you would easily see the animals because most of our neighbors kept donkeys,” he says.

The donkey is a working animal that is said to be in danger of extinction if appropriate measures are not taken by various countries, including Tanzania, where the animal has become rare in recent years.

The areas where donkeys are mostly found include Singida, Dodoma, Siha, Bomang’ombe, Shinyanga, Longido, Simanjiro, Kiteto, Same, Morogoro, Tanga, and Iringa Rural.

One of the reasons cited as to why the domesticated animal is in danger of extinction is the large-scale harvesting of donkey meat and skin that was previously taking place in Dodoma, Singida, and Shinyanga.

Investors from China opened slaughter factories in Dodoma and Shinyanga, and were slaughtering up to 500 donkeys per day.

The population of donkeys was estimated at 657,000 in 2018/19 with activists calling for their protection.

The government has already banned the slaughter of donkeys for commercial purposes and closed all donkey meat factories.

Risk of extinction

Commenting on the animals being in danger of extinction, the executive director of the Tanzania Animal Welfare Society (Taweso), Dr. Thomas Kahema, says they realized this in 2014 in Dodoma Region after some Chinese set up a donkey meat factory.

According to him, the animal welfare society started raising awareness of the importance to protect animals by championing the closure of the factory as well as educating the public about how to protect the animals.

“The challenge has been there, as donkeys are hardworking animals, whose reproduction rate has also been low. They may reproduce once every three to four years, and their lives are shortened because of the hard work that they do,” he says.

Based on this, he claims that when donkeys are harvested in large numbers, there is a high risk of extinction. This is not the case in Tanzania only, but also in other African countries that use donkeys as working animals.

He points out that the people of Asia, particularly the Chinese, who use donkey skin to make traditional medicineto slow aging, heal cancer, and boost men’s sexual prowess, is what drives the industry to flourish in the world.

“In such circumstances, the possibility of preventing donkeys from being slaughtered becomes less likely. Even if we manage to do so, they can still be smuggled to other countries and slaughtered.

“The protection of donkeys requires joint international efforts, without which the situation will be worse. So, it is important to protect them from being smuggled to countries where they would be slaughtered,” says Dr Kahema.

In order to ensure that the animals are protected at the community level, the director says they have sensitized residents to form groups of donkey owners so they can cooperate in protecting the animals and taking good care of them as is the case with other animals.

He notes that the donkey is a useful animal and insists that society should be sensitised on the importance of protecting the animal.

“There are communities that slaughter donkeys for meat. We have noticed that these communities eat a lot of donkey meat. They should stop eating donkey meat as it is not on the list of animal meat that is usually inspected for consumption,” he says.

Dr Kahema goes on to say that Tanzania has its Animal Welfare Act of 2008, which clearly explains how to protect animals. However, he says its implementation has been slow.

“The government should make sure there are meat inspectors throughout the country. These should be able to deal with the matter. The legal system is sound, but policy implementation has been difficult,” the director says.

He advises the government to join forces with other countries so they can come up with joint strategies that will help save the animals.

He also advises African countries to have talks with China in order to stop the large-scale slaughter of animals.

Government’s intervention

The Director of Veterinary Services in the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, Prof Hezron Nonga, says the government is aware of the problem and that it has taken various measures to protect and breed the animal.

He says 2018/19 statistics show that Tanzania has a total of 657,000 donkeys. Prof Nonga says the slaughter of donkeys increased rapidly following investments by Chinese companies in Shinyanga and Dodoma for the purpose.

“At that time, these companies could slaughter 500 donkeys per day, and if you look at the level of harvesting compared to the actual keeping of donkeys, it means that if this situation continued, it would lead to the complete extinction of donkeys,” he says.

Prof Nonga points out that donkeys could become extinct not because they are slaughtered a lot but because their breeding takes a long time.

“The gestation period for donkeys is around 14 months, and they give birth to a single foal, and a female donkey can give birth once or not at all in her lifetime, especially when living in a difficult environment, with a lot of work, little food, and poor care,” says Prof Nonga. The vet says after realizing the situation, the government banned the slaughter of donkeys in October 2021.

He explains that the commercial slaughter of donkeys is prohibited in Tanzania.

Prof Nonga says the second step that the government has taken is to ban the trade of donkey products such as meat and skin. He says people were exporting these to China.

The third step that the government took was sensitizing the citizens about the need for large-scale donkey farms in order to enhance the animal’s reproductive rate and prevent extinction.

“In the next financial year of 2023/24, we expect to allocate a special budget to facilitate the reproduction of donkeys in a bid to increase their number.”

He says this is important because the donkey is like an alternative tractor for the villagers who cannot buy a tractor.