Why Kenya has banned the slaughter of donkeys

The global demand for donkey hides and meat is driven mostly by Chinese markets. In China, donkey meat and hides are used to produce snacks, beauty products, virility stimulants, antiageing products and traditional medicine known as ejiao.

Ejiao drives demand the most. Consisting of gelatin extracted from boiled donkey hides, it is claimed to boost health and vitality. Ejiao has a long tradition in traditional Chinese medicine, but previously only the elite in society could afford it. Over the past 30 years, a much larger section of the Chinese population has been able to afford it, which has driven the increase in demand. Local markets in China were unable to keep up, so Chinese businesses turned to other sources. Like a number of other African countries, Kenya was identified as a good source of donkeys, given that it had a population of about 1,8 million of these animals in 2010. Moreover, under Kenyan law, they are considered a farm and food animal, like pigs and cows.

To meet the demand from China, four export abattoirs were licensed and started operating in 2016. These had the capacity to slaughter 1 260 donkeys a day. To supply them, donkeys were sourced from donkey keepers; however, the high demand led to some donkeys being stolen to be sold to abattoirs and some were even brought in (legally and illegally) from Ethiopia to meet the demand.

There are currently no donkey farms in Kenya that have the capacity to supply the abattoirs.

IMPACT ON KENYA’S DONKEY POPULATION

According to the report, ‘The Status of Donkey Slaughter in Kenya and its Implications on Community Livelihoods’, which was published last year, the high demand for donkeys has significantly increased their prices, made them hard to find, and led to many incidents of donkey theft. The average price of an adult donkey has gone up in two years from Ksh4 000 (about R670) to Ksh13 000 (R2 170).

Donkeys are also at risk of going extinct in the country. My colleagues and I recently conducted a survey which found that donkeys were being slaughtered at five times the natural reproduction rate. A total of 301 977 donkeys, representing 15% of the donkey population, were slaughtered in four export abattoirs between April 2016 and December 2018. Keeping all factors constant, the report projected that by 2023 there would not be any donkeys left.

This would be a huge blow to many households in Kenya. Poor households depend a great deal on working donkeys and have suffered as a result of their scarcity. The households most affected are found in rural Kenya and earn their living from farming.

Donkeys offer crucial services for families that cannot afford motorised transport. They provide transport to markets, particularly in remote areas with poor infrastructure. They carry farm produce, people and fodder for other livestock. They are used daily for fetching water and firewood.

Losing a donkey could mean a child has to help with household chores and cannot go to school. If a household does not own a donkey, it needs to hire one or people to take on the tasks. It costs more in terms of both time and money.

A SUSTAINABLE DONKEY INDUSTRY

The ban on the commercial slaughtering of donkeys will allow their numbers to grow again. If slaughtering were reintroduced in the future, abattoirs should enter into contracts with donkey farmers to ensure a steady, sustainable supply. Pregnant donkeys should also be excluded from slaughter. At the moment, about 27% of females slaughtered are pregnant, disrupting the reproduction rate.

There should also be a focus on donkey breeding research to increase the number and size of donkeys produced. The predominant breeds are descendants and crosses of the Nubian wild ass and the Somali wild ass.

Kenya could regulate the trade more carefully. Other countries in Africa have managed to do this successfully. Ethiopia, for instance, banned the country’s first donkey abattoir from operating after a public outcry.

The government is looking at more sustainable ways of farming donkeys.

The views expressed in our weekly opinion piece do not necessarily reflect those of Farmer’s Weekly. Kenya legalised the trade in donkey meat and hides in 2012. But according to Monicah Maichomo, director of the Veterinary Sciences Research Institute at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation, the country has subsequently decided to ban the commercial slaughter of donkeys. This was after a report published in 2019 warned that the rise of donkey abattoirs in Kenya could wipe out the entire population of these animals in the country by 2023.