{"id":32068,"date":"2017-01-25T01:40:17","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T01:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/south-african-police-seize-5-000-donkey-skins-in\/"},"modified":"2017-01-25T01:40:13","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T01:40:13","slug":"south-african-police-seize-5-000-donkey-skins-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/south-african-police-seize-5-000-donkey-skins-in\/","title":{"rendered":"South African police seize 5,000 donkey skins in Benoni farm raid"},"content":{"rendered":"

{South African police say they are investigating the illegal donkey skin trade after seizing 5,000 hides in a recent raid east of Johannesburg.}<\/p>\n

Police suspect the skins found at a farm in Benoni last week came from illegally slaughtered animals whose hides were destined for China.<\/p>\n

They described the raid as a major breakthrough against smugglers.<\/p>\n

Trade in donkey skins is worth millions of dollars, with hides prized in China for supposed medicinal properties.<\/p>\n

The gelatine in the hides is used as a medicinal tonic, with some believing it can slow down menopause in women.<\/p>\n

It is also used to try to treat conditions such as insomnia and poor circulation.<\/p>\n

The raid in Benoni followed a tip-off from a woman who had complained about the smell of rotting meat.<\/p>\n

Police did not make any arrests at the farm but have said the raid provided important new information about a syndicate suspected of slaughtering the animals and transporting the meat and hides, without them being certified disease-free.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper said Chinese nationals were suspected of involvement.<\/p>\n

{{‘Bludgeoned with hammers’}}<\/p>\n

On Monday, the paper reported that a site where more than 100 donkeys were illegally slaughtered had been discovered on a farm in Olifantshoek, in the Northern Cape.<\/p>\n

The South African National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) spoke of animals there “being bludgeoned with hammers and being skinned alive”.<\/p>\n

It called practices there “barbaric and inhumane” and criticised the government for “doing very little to end this illegal practice”.<\/p>\n

The Mail & Guardian quoted NSPCA inspector Mpho Mokoena as saying a suspect arrested at Olifantshoek had said skins there were transported to Benoni, suggesting a link between the two sites.<\/p>\n

Police say donkey theft, slaughter and animal skin sales have been rising in South Africa since 2015.<\/p>\n

Last year, Burkina Faso banned the export of donkey skins and Niger the export of donkeys saying a sharp increase in trade to Asian countries was threatening their donkey populations.<\/p>\n

\"Donkey<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{South African police say they are investigating the illegal donkey skin trade after seizing 5,000 hides in a recent raid east of Johannesburg.} Police suspect the skins found at a farm in Benoni last week came from illegally slaughtered animals whose hides were destined for China. They described the raid as a major breakthrough against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-32068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32068\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32068"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=32068"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=32068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}