Operators reject bill seeking ban on donkey slaughtering, says it’ll lead to loss of business

Stakeholders, during the public hearing of a proposed bill on slaughtering and regulations of donkeys, disagreed over the ban on donkey slaughtering in Nigeria.

The Donkey Dealers Association has said the outright ban as proposed in a bill seeking to regulate the slaughtering of donkeys in Nigeria would result in loss of business and investments for three million Nigerians.

The National Chairman of DDA, Mr Ifeanyi Dike, made the remark at a one-day public hearing on eight bills for the agriculture sector organised by the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.

The bill on Donkey Slaughter, Regulation and Export Certification Bill 2020, sponsored by Sen. Yahaya  Abdullahi seeks to regulate the slaughter of donkeys.

It also seeks to establish the breeding and ranching of donkeys through the export certification value chain, to mitigate the extinction of donkeys given their aesthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreational and scientific value to the nation.

Dike said an outright ban on the slaughtering of donkeys was not a solution to the envisaged extinction of the animal in Nigeria.

He said, “We should know that the outright blanket ban as proposed by this bill will create some powerful smuggling syndicates who are bent on getting the donkey derivatives for export to China, thereby sabotaging the economy.

“The blanket ban on donkey killing and export of its derivatives as a result of a morbid fear of its extinction have failed to realise that regulation, ranching and breeding are the solution.

“Cows which we slaughter more than 50,000 on a daily basis as meat have not gone into extinction, so how can a donkey with the same gestation period as a cow go into extinction? We should encourage breeding and ranching.”

Dike said the dealers had invested heavily over the years and had also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Animal Production Research Institute for the breeding and production of five million donkeys within a space of 10 years.

“We took this action to increase the local population of donkeys in Nigeria to avoid its extinction.”