As health, virility myths spread, donkeys in Andhra are dead meat

What do you call someone who eats donkey meat to cure back pain, or become more virile? Bite your tongue if your first impulse is to call them a donkey, because over the years studies have shown that donkeys are as intelligent (and loyal) as dogs.

And yet, as the recent seizure of 400kg donkey meat in Andhra Pradesh’s Bapatla city shows, donkey slaughter is not a stray act. While this was the largest joint raid by police and animal rights activists in recent times, cases of donkey meat possession and its illegal transportation occur regularly in the state, even though both slaughtering donkeys and consuming their meat are illegal.

Until a few years ago, donkeys were butchered only when they went lame in old age, and only one section of society consumed the meat of old donkeys till the early2010s. However, now people from different walks of life have taken a liking to it, particularly in the coastal districts like Krishna, Guntur, West Godavari, Prakasam and Bapatla. Driving demand are the myths about donkey meat’s medicinal qualities – that it increases virility and libido, improves blood circulation, and cures back pain, arthritis, asthma, and other respiratory conditions.

But Prof G Sudhakar, head of the food and nutrition department at Andhra University, rubbishes these claims. No scientific study has established the medicinal qualities of donkey meat, he says. “Only some quacks positioned the meat as a superior one, falsely claiming that it would possess miracle cures and therapeutic characteristics for various diseases. ” Besides, the meat is unlikely to be nutritionally rich as “donkeys mostly survive on poor quality feed from the surroundings,” Sudhakar points out.

Andhra animal husbandry department joint director Y V Ramana also says, “It does not contain any unique nutrient blend or medicinal values. As the slaughtering happens in unhygienic places and conditions, its consumption will do more harm than good. ”

Donkeys are also exploited for their milk and blood now. A small cup of donkey milk sells for about Rs 500, for its unproven ‘antimicrobial’ properties. And there are some who mistakenly believe drinking donkey blood will make them run faster.

Regardless, donkey meat consumption in Andhra Pradesh is on the rise, and national livestock census data from 2019 seems to bear this out. The state’s donkey population declined 53% in seven years, from 10,164 in 2012 to 4,678 in 2019. The reduced role of donkeys in agriculture and transportation might partly explain this but illegal slaughtering is also likely to have played a role.

If the craze for their meat continues, donkeys might become rare in Andhra as they have in China, where the use of donkey skin to make ‘ejiao’, a gelatin base for traditional medicines, is virtually driving the animals to extinction. Donkey meat is also popular in north African countries like Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.
Wildlife activist K Ramana Kumar from Bapatla says, “In this region, some peopleuse the oil extracted from donkey fat for joint pains. Even the milk is sold at very high prices to gullible people. If the trend continues, donkeys may be pushed to the verge of extinction. ”

Besides its purported medicinal properties, the low price of donkey meat makes it attractive to some. Brooke, an international equine charity, recently published a study titled ‘The Hidden Hide’ that says people in Andhra buy donkey meat due to its lower price and perceived health benefits.

While donkey meat costs Rs 250 to Rs 300 a kilo, some traders mix it with mutton – which costs Rs 800 to Rs 1,000 a kilo – to make a fast buck. “Due to the mixing of donkey meat with mutton, consumers end up eating it unknowingly,” says Meet Ashar, Peta India’s manager of cruelty response projects.


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