Panafrican News Agency

Donkey skin trade worries animal protection organizations in Botswana

Gaborone, Botswana (PANA)   -   The donkey skin trade threatening the existence of the donkey population in Africa is a source of worry to Botswana’s animal protection organizations, an official source said here Friday.

As a result, the Botswana Society for the Protection of Animals (BSPCA) and SPANA Botswana will be holding a donkey skin trade conference in the capital, Gaborone, on 10 July 2019 to assess the impact and threat of donkey slaughtering in the country.

The day’s conference with the theme “Opportunity or hreat?”  aims at raising awareness on the impact of the donkey skin trade, including the inhuman conditions faced by donkeys on donkey abattoirs that allow the slaughter and export of donkey products.

In 2017,  Botswana lifted a nationwide moratorium on donkey abattoirs allowing slaughter and export of donkey products.

It is alleged that at the expected and current slaughter rate, the donkey population in Botswana will be unsustainable within the next two or three years.

BSPCA and SPANA are calling for a sustainable approach to the trade in donkey skins while the trade’s potential and likely impact on human and animal populations is being assessed.

The conference, which also aims to highlight the threat to the country’s donkeys and to ensure that the implications of this trade are understood, will involve all the stakeholders such as the local police, residents and international experts.

The convergence also aims to shed light on the importance of donkeys which are normally used as draught power in Botswana.

It will also look into the inadequacies of the current legislation, surveillance and recording in donkey abattoirs and promote welfare improvements for the animal.

“Donkeys play a vital role in providing livelihoods for rural communities, so this conference is designed to raise awareness about the incredibly harmful long term impact the skin trade is having. There must be a legislation put in place for the welfare of the donkeys and equine population in line with that set out in the World Organization for Animal Health,” said Pippa Young, SPANA Botswana Country Director.

He said if the Botswana government and stakeholders wanted this trade to continue as a viable business, the issue must be fully assessed and analyzed and ensure that donkey owners are included and considered within the process.

SPANA is a charity organization that works to improve the lives of working animals and the communities that depend on them.

 

-0-    PANA    MS5/MA   Jul2019