Mr Tunmise Olagbaju, a ruminant expert, has decried the scarcity of West African dwarf goats for breeding, claiming that barbecue (Asun) merchants always purchase goats in bulk from the market.

In an interview with the Nigerian Tribune, Olagbaju stated that goat dealers typically claim that barbecue merchants are willing to pay any price for them. He said, “Sometimes when we go to the market to buy and we can’t afford the goat, those BBQ merchants are already there, willing to pay.

“The last time I went to the market, I could not get mature animals; we refer to them as spent does, that is goats that has given birth once or twice. And this has been happening for quite sometime now.

“It became a source of worry because this is a dangerous trend, and the reason is that mature female goats are the ones we should use for breeding. Now, I need animals to breed on my farm, but I cannot get mature ones. I need mature spent does for my research, but I could not get them because some goat merchants who buy and sell to make asun are always at the market coming for the female goats.

“And they do not even care whether the female is a breeding or spent female. If it is a spent female, I would not even have issues about that, but breeding females, West African dwarf female goat production is being threatened because there will be a serious crisis very soon.

“Because we will not have enough female goats to produce for our consumption, I believe we must seriously consider this and advocate. We should restrict the way female goats are slaughtered. West African dwarf female goats that are still reproducing should not be sold for asun production.

“We are already ruining the lives that will produce the next generation of West African dwarf female goats. If this trend continues, we will no longer have West African dwarf female goats, or at least not in sufficient numbers to meet our animal protein needs, because the mature and producing females are bought and killed by asun merchants.

Source: Tribune Online