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Dealers to NASS: Ban donkey slaughtering, render 3m Nigerians jobless

Donkey Dealers Association (DDA), yesterday, cautioned that the proposed ban on donkey slaughtering in Nigeria would result in loss of businesses and investments to three million Nigerians.

Thenationalchairmanof the association, Mr Ifeanyi Dike, gave the warning at a one day public hearing on eight bills for the agriculture sector, organised by the National Assembly Joint Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, chaired by Senator Bima Enagi.

 

The bill entitled “Donkey Slaughter Regulationand Export Certification Bill, 2020,” sponsoredbySenatorYahaya Abdullahi, passed second reading on July 6, 2021. The fundamental objective of the legislation was to mitigatetheextinctionof donkeysgiventheiraesthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreationalandscientific value to the Nigerian nation.

 

The bill also seeks to declare donkeys as an endangered species, which has greatly depleted the national herd of the animal as a result of indiscriminate slaughtering forthepurposeof harvesting its skin. Making his submission at the hearing session, Dike noted that the outright ban on slaughtering was not a solutiontotheenvisaged extinction of donkeys in Nigeria.

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

 

The blanket ban ondonkeykilling and export of its derivatives as a result of morbid fear of its extinction has failed to realisethatregulation, ranching and breeding is the solution.

 

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

 

He said that donkey regulation; breedingandranching policy would create millions of job opportunities starting from donkey farmers, traders, slaughterhouses, logistics and export.

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