Ghana’s donkey population has plummeted from 14,500 to fewer than 5,000 animals in recent years, with experts warning the species could face local extinction due to mass slaughter driven by Chinese demand for donkey hides, a prominent agricultural scientist said Wednesday.
Professor Roger Kanton, National Programme Officer for the Fight Against Donkey Extinction and a crop scientist with 31 years of research experience, told the Upper East Regional Minister, Donatus Akamugri Atanga, when he paid a visit to his office that criminal networks are stealing donkeys from widows and orphans to supply Chinese facilities processing the animals for Ejiao, a traditional pharmaceutical product valued at up to $500,000 per well-fed donkey.
“If I show you pictures of the way the donkeys are treated, you will weep,” Professor Kanton said during the advocacy meeting. “These are criminal elements rustling donkeys from vulnerable people.”
The trade centers on Ejiao, spelled E-J-I-A-O, an anti-aging product made from donkey hide that is highly prized by China’s middle class. The substance is also used in perfumery and cosmetics, making it a lucrative commodity that has decimated donkey populations across Africa.
China’s own donkey population collapsed from 13 million in 2017 to just 1 million by 2019, prompting Beijing to ban domestic donkey slaughter. Chinese companies subsequently turned to Africa, establishing slaughter facilities in Ghana and neighboring countries.
According to Prof. Kanton, the largest facility operated in Walewale under the name Blue Coast Ghana Limited, processing between 150 and 250 donkeys daily. Most animals came from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Senegal, where donkey populations are also nearing extinction.
“When we closed the Walewale facility in May 2022, the Chinese relocated to Bolgatanga,” Prof. Kanton said. “Now Zuarungu, near the Bolgatanga meat factory, has become the epicenter.”
The professor described visiting a Chinese facility near the old Metro Mass station on the road to Bawku, where workers packed processed hides into two 40-foot containers. “When you get within 100 meters, the stench alone is so bad,” he said. “The chemicals they discharge kill all vegetation.”
Prof. Kanton said the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly previously collected approximately 3,000 cedis monthly in taxes from the operation, though he questioned whether the revenue reached official coffers.
The donkey crisis has mobilized regional authorities and traditional leaders. The Walewale Municipal Assembly and the West Mamprusi Municipal Assembly enacted local bylaws banning donkey slaughter for hides within three months of advocacy efforts.
Communities have begun fighting back, Prof Kanton said. On a Sunday before a recent regional donkey meeting, thieves stole 18 donkeys from some villages near Tumu in Upper West Region. The young chief of one of the communities, a hunter elected by his people, organized an armed pursuit and intercepted the criminals at Chuchuliga, recovering the animals.
“I’m giving you all this scenario to tell you how serious these people are bent on their illicit trade,” Prof. Kanton said.
The breeding challenges compound the crisis. Donkeys have a gestation period of 11 to 14 months, but owners rarely know when conception occurs. The animals have a 30 percent fertility rate, meaning only three of 10 bred donkeys will produce offspring.
“The Chinese have better science than us. They’ve tried breeding; they didn’t succeed,” Kanton said. “The donkey is not an animal you can easily multiply.”
Despite international bans — ECOWAS member states agreed in 2014 to prohibit donkey slaughter, and the African Union has enacted similar restrictions — enforcement remains weak. Investigative journalists from the United States, United Kingdom and Australia documented large shipments of donkey hides leaving Tema Harbor and Nigerian ports for China, contradicting official denials from the Ghana Ports and Harbors Authority.
“The question we’re asking is, is it that those things dropped from the sky? Just like rosewood,” Prof. Kanton said, drawing parallels to another banned export that continues illegally.
He noted that animal products cannot legally leave Ghana without approval from the veterinary department. “Clearly, someone somewhere must be benefiting from this illicit trade,” he said.
The Fight Against Donkey Extinction has formed donkey networks in five districts — Walewale Municipal, West Mamprusi Municipal, East Mamprusi Municipal, Bolgatanga Municipal, Kassena Nankana West, and Bongo District. These networks include assembly members, environmental protection officers, police, immigration officials, customs officers, chiefs, donkey owners, transporters, and farmers.
The organization awards two donkeys annually to the best donkey farmers in each district, focusing on vulnerable women who depend on the animals for plowing and transport. “Every year we give them two donkeys, at least trying to replenish the populations,” Kanton said.
He emphasized that his organization does not oppose the consumption of donkey meat by communities in Bolgatanga and elsewhere, nor would they prevent individuals who specifically breed donkeys for commercial sale. “If someone wants to produce donkeys and sell to Chinese, we have no qualms about that,” he said. “But to rustle people’s donkeys, which is what is currently happening — that is the issue.”
Prof. Kanton also warned of zoonotic diseases that can transfer from donkeys to humans, noting recent outbreaks of illnesses linked to animal-human interaction. “Some of the diseases of the donkey can affect humans, and some are very deadly,” he said.
The professor, who serves as a consultant while continuing his agricultural research, said government investment in animal science remains inadequate. “I’ve worked in CSIR for 31 years. Which government gives us money? It’s only donors who give us money to do research,” he said, contrasting Ghana’s limited animal breeding success with advances in crop science.
Source: a1radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Bolgatanga
