Donkey diet kicks up a stink
If no restraint is applied on the donkey meat business, that hardy animal which comes handy to villagers as draught power might soon be wiped out with criminals stealing the animals for sale and then melting away to feast on the windfall.
THE people, Zimbabweans, have spoken with untainted vehemence and eloquence and it now behoves on the powers-that-be to act beyond any rhetorical much ado to clear the stink kicked up by a strange new business venture in the form of a donkey abattoir in Matabeleland’s Umguza District.
Some of those Zimbabweans who have expressed their opposition to the abattoir, which will see 70 donkeys slaughtered each day out of the country’s animal population of 150 000 donkeys against the world population of 44 million animals, said donkey meat was taboo to Zimbabwean culture and therefore a dastardly affront to our black population.
[The value culture is generally described as “the beliefs, values, behaviour and material objects that constitute a people’s way of life.”]
The company involved in the donkey abattoir has said the facility would serve its Indian and Chinese customers, but did not however, provide a specific statistic, which therefore raises suspicion that the meat will find its way to butcheries across the country with unscrupulous meat dealers eager to make a quick buck.
But should that happen, how will ordinary customers identify the donkey meat from beef without the gift of prophecy and since butcheries stocking the meat will obviously not wish to be known for selling donkey meat?
In the circumstances, a boomerang effect from the slaugh- ter of the donkeys could lead to customers boycotting their traditional butcheries in fear of buying donkey meat — and instead relying on the meat from the animals they slaughter themselves — with the consequential closure of some of the businesses for lack of customers and with that loss of jobs and income to both workers and the butcheries themselves.
After the much vaunted Command Agriculture project, the government has launched Command Fisheries and Command Livestock, the latter to rebuild the country’s national herd with a view to resuming beef exports to Europe.
But will the slaughter of donkeys on a Command basis not lead to boycotts of our beef exports by countries suspicious that donkey meat might find its way to them along with the imported beef?
Some might say the controversial donkey abattoir provides an example of approaches to “the ease of doing business”, which is now being vigorously promoted by the government to woo foreign investors.
But conservationists would oppose such a belief by saying that the Umguza donkey meat venture is an inverted approach to the ease of doing business initiative, if their sentiments as published in the press are anything to go by.
In a joint statement this week, Aware Trust Zimbabwe; Veterinaries for Animal Welfare Zimbabwe; Lupane Youth for Development Trust; the Zimbabwe National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Spana said: “It is with grave concern that the above organisations have learnt about the proposed donkey abattoir in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe.
“We would like to highlight the possible socio- economic animal welfare and environmental consequences that might result from such a venture, and enlighten the Zimbabwean public on the experience of other countries that have licensed donkey abattoirs in Africa.
“Given that the global population is only 44 million, this insatiable demand is simply not sustainable.”
Dogs should obviously be included among the donkey conservationists as the pets would rather die of hunger than kill and eat a donkey even the young of the animal.
If no restraint is applied on the donkey meat business, that hardy animal which comes handy to villagers as draught power might soon be wiped out with criminals stealing the animals for sale and then melting away to feast on the windfall.
And — who knows — the fate of the wild donkey, the zebra, will now also probably hang in the balance should donkey meat prove titillating the palate of consumers in this country.
Zimbabwe without the donkey will obviously be a lot poorer than it is today.