Mexico Falls Back in Love With the Donkey

Once they were a ubiquitous symbol of old-time Mexico. But now, in the animal world's equivalent of coals to Newcastle, the country has started to import donkeys.

Today, far from being an essential in agricultural production, the numbers of donkeys and mules have dwindled so drastically that one state in the west of Mexico is planning to bring in more of them from the US. Francisco Lugo, who heads the donkey comeback programme for the state of Jalisco, expects to welcome the first 50 Kentucky donkeys in January. He aims to set up a national breeding centre that will eventually supply the whole of the country.

"We want to start the repopulation and improve the genetic stock, too," Mr Lugo said, adding that the Kentucky donkeys were larger and stronger than the local breed. "We will breed animals that can carry 250 to 300 kilos, not just 100 kilos as used to be the case here."

The decline of the Mexican donkey began about 20 years ago, a side-effect of rapid urbanisation and the keenness of farmers to mechanise production and escape the connotations of backwardness associated with beasts of burden.

Now the national donkey population is largely confined to the poorer southern states such as Chiapas, where 70 years ago Graham Greene's donkey travels inspired part of his seminal Mexican novel, The Power and the Glory.

But farmers are beginning to lament the loss of their donkeys. The animals do less damage to crops than machines, are better able to cope with uneven or sloped terrain, can reach places vehicles cannot get to, and can be more reliable than old motors.