Correio newspaper | Bahia has the largest herd of donkeys in the country and exports skin to China

Animal leather is used to produce eijao – a product widely used in traditional Asian medicine

Published on May 1, 2024 at 10:08

China is the biggest buyer of donkeys from Bahia. A piece of leather can be sold for around 4 thousand dollars in the country. Animal skin is used to produce eijao – a product widely used in traditional Asian medicine. The ‘elixir’ is part of the treatment of health problems ranging from anemia to sexual impotence. Eijao is obtained by boiling donkey skin. Additionally, the meat is sent to Vietnam for consumption.

Hence the dispute between narratives: could trade be causing the extinction of animals? Finding up-to-date information on the impact of donkey slaughter is no simple task. According to the 2017 Agricultural Census, the most recent on the subject, Bahia had 93,154 donkeys – the largest herd in Brazil. They were spread across 63,365 establishments, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

The data does not include free-roaming animals, which, if added together, could reach 400,000, according to activists’ estimates. Between October 2021 and September 2023 alone, around 71,000 donkeys were slaughtered in Bahia, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa). Today, only one company, located in Amargosa, carries out the practice in the state. This is Frinordeste (Nordeste Pecuária, Indústria e Comércio Ltda).

Until they reach the slaughterhouse, donkeys are purchased from small producers or captured when they are on the streets. “The purchase takes place in several municipalities in the Northeast and the animals are brought for slaughter in Bahia. There are reports of long trips, lasting more than eight hours, in which the animals end up dying”, explains zootechnician Chiara Albano, professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science at the Federal University of Bahia.

She explains that, despite being authorized by law, the slaughter of donkeys does not have a well-defined production chain, as happens with cattle, for example. “Today, the analysis is that they are facing extinction”, he adds. A petition that has gathered around 35,000 signatures calls for an end to the slaughter.

“There are no longer as many donkeys in Bahia as there used to be. The few that do are captured. There is no donkey production chain. They are bought at low prices and sold to slaughterhouses”, says lawyer Gislaine Brandão, activist with the National Front for the Defense of Donkeys (FNDJ)

In 2020, the Regional Council of Veterinary Medicine of the State of Bahia (CRMV-BA) published a technical note in which it draws attention to the evidence of pre-slaughter suffering and injuries typical of glanders.

Glanders disease is a lethal zoonosis that can be transmitted to humans through contact with infected animals. “Collecting animals without knowledge of their origin and without effective health control is a risk for the spread of the disease”, explains Chiara Albano.

Inspection of the processes that make up the slaughter of animals is the responsibility of the state and federal levels. Adab, linked to the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Irrigation, Fisheries and Aquaculture of Bahia (Seagri), inspects the places where donkeys are stored and transported. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock supervises the slaughterhouses.

In November 2020, four years after the regulation of slaughter in Brazil, the Bahia Agricultural Defense Agency established rules for the activity in the state, through Ordinance 13/2020. Regulations determine that only donkeys weighing over 90 kilos can be slaughtered, with a limit of up to 40% on the number of females. Furthermore, females in the final third of pregnancy must be preserved.

“The activity is regular, legal, legitimate and authorized by the Ministry of Agriculture. Adab made a traffic regulation in this situation, through a 2020 ordinance, which regulates internal traffic for the slaughter of animals for the preservation of the species”, says Carlos Augusto Spinola, director of animal protection at Adab.

Donkeys are threatened with extinction

He compares the slaughter of donkeys to that of other species. “I see [o abate de jumentos] as a normal production activity. Are you going to ban slaughtering chicken and cows? There is a legal issue and Adab has the obligation to regulate what is legal”, adds Carlos Augusto.

The Court banned, on an injunction basis, the slaughter of donkeys in slaughterhouses in Bahia in 2018, following a public civil action filed by five animal protection entities. At the time, 200 animals were found dead on a farm in Itapetinga, in the interior of the state. The Federal Regional Court (TRF) reauthorized the practice the following year.

Currently, Frinordeste is the only company to slaughter donkeys in Bahia. The slaughterhouse opened in 2017 and generated, at the time, 150 direct jobs and 270 indirect jobs. The expectation that year was that the establishment would produce 300 tons of donkey meat per month.

The report attempted to contact the company via telephone numbers available on the internet, but received no response. Two years ago, Alex Bastos, administrative director of Frinordeste, denied that the company contributed to the extinction of animals and said that the numbers on the donkey population in the state are outdated.

While activists fight to end animal slaughter, the municipality of Amargosa is trying to expand it. In October last year, Mayor Júlio Pinheiro (PT) announced the signing of a protocol of intentions to expand this activity in the region. The report sent messages to the municipal press office and the mayor requesting an interview on the matter, but there was no response.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa) was also asked about the number of animals slaughtered in 2022, 2023 and this year, through the press office, but did not respond to the request.