Donkeys in Africa and Asia are being stolen from their communities and brutally slaughtered so that their skins can be shipped to China—all to feed the demand for ‘ejiao’, a product that has no proven health benefits for consumers.
Donkeys are in crisis
Click to read HSI’s report on ejiao production and the impacts on donkeys
Ejiao is made using the gelatin from donkey hides and is sold as a traditional Chinese medicine. The process is brutal—rural donkeys in Africa and Asia are often bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer, and the communities that relied on them are left without their sole means of survival.
A staggering 1.8 million skins were traded for ejiao in 2017 out of a global donkey population of only 44 million. Examining current trends, it is feared that 4–10 million donkeys may die each year, which would annihilate populations across the world.
Together with our partners in China, HSI is surveying and educating consumers of ejiao about the heinous animal welfare, health and environmental consequences that surround the donkey skin trade.
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