CAIRO: “Donkeys’ meat tastes like any other meat and if the slaughtering process was carried out according to hygiene procedures, it would not cause any harm,” head of Food Safety Authority of Egypt (FSAE) Hussein Mansour said Wednesday.
The statement came after Egyptian police found a donkeys’ farm in Fayoum governorate, where the farm’s owner raise and slaughter donkeys and distribute their meat to a number of butchers for human consumption, Youm7 reported Tuesday.
It was reported that 1,500 alive and 30 slaughtered donkeys were seized in the farm.
A police report was filed and the farm’s owner, along with eight workers were detained 15 days pending investigation into managing unlicensed farm and slaughtering donkeys in violation of the environmental and health specifications.
According to the farm’s owner and the workers, the meat was slaughtered to be sent everyday to Cairo to be used as food for lions in circuses.
Government launched inspection campaigns on all restaurants, butchers and shops to make sure the meat they use and sell was slaughtered in licensed butcheries.
“The slaughtered donkeys were prepared to feed the lions and the farm is one of the oldest that the National Circus deals with,” renowned lion tamer Anousa told Youm7 Thursday.
On Thursday, Egypt’s Dar al-Iftaa announced that slaughtering donkeys for human use purposes is “taboo.”