Tanzania animal welfare policy and legal framework review: An analysis zeroing on donkey slaughter and hides trade

Abstract

The study centered on the review and gap analysis of the legal framework of animal welfare with a focus on donkey slaughter and its hide’s trade. It revealed that Tanzania has a comprehensive animal welfare legal framework that is commendably encored on the 5 Universal Freedoms for Animal Welfare supported by an aura of auxiliary Acts and regulations. However, their compliance and enforcement are far below attributed by low awareness and lack of enforcement mechanisms. As for the donkey’s welfare matters, the findings revealed a worst situation accelerated by commercial donkey slaughter for their meat and hides trade. A venture endorsed in 2012 by the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) allowed two Chinese companies to invest in donkey slaughter and export of donkey meat and hide to China (Zephania, 2021) for the extraction of Ejiao, a herbal product for their home market. Such donkey welfare abuses transected all along the value chain from their sourcing, marketing, transportation, handling and slaughter. The Sector Ministry through advocacy cries from local, regional and international animal welfare organizations had to intervene by banning donkey slaughter in 2017, temporally re-opening in 2019 and banning again in 2022 this time augmented by a Continental African Union Moratorium on the same in 2022. The study recommends elimination of the identified discrepancies and inconsistencies within and in between the principal legislation, that is, the Animal Welfare Act, (2008), its regulations of 2010 and other related pieces of legislation by updating, amending and reconciling the relevant statutes.