Millions of donkeys are killed to produce medicine – 02/21/2024 – Environment

To make a living selling water, Steve depended completely on his donkeys. They were the ones pulling the cart loaded with 20 gallons to share among their customers.

When Steve’s donkeys were stolen for their skins, he was left without a job.

That day had started like most others. In the morning, Steve left his home on the outskirts of Nairobi and went to the field to collect his animals.

“I couldn’t see them,” he recalls. “I looked all day, all night, and the next day.” Three days later he received a call from a friend saying he had found the animals’ skeletons. “They were killed, butchered, their skin wasn’t there.”

Cases like this, of donkey theft, have become increasingly common in different parts of Africa, but also in other parts of the world with large populations of these animals.

Steve and his donkeys are one of many cases in a controversial global donkey skin trade.

The origins of this market are thousands of kilometers away from Kenya. More precisely in China, where there is high demand for a traditional medicinal remedy made from donkey skin gelatin.

It is called ejiao and is believed to have properties that improve health and preserve youth. The skins are boiled to extract the gelatin, which is turned into powder, pills or liquid, or added to food.

Campaigners against the trade say people like Steve, and the donkeys they depend on, are victims of unsustainable demand for the traditional ejiao ingredient.

In a new study, the organization The Donkey Sanctuary, which has been campaigning against the trade since 2017, estimates that globally at least 5.9 million donkeys are slaughtered every year to supply it.

And the charity says demand is growing, although the BBC has not been able to independently verify these figures.

It is very difficult to obtain the exact number of donkeys killed to supply the ejiao industry.

In Africa, where about two-thirds of the world’s 53 million donkeys live, countries have different laws: exporting donkey skins is legal in some and illegal in others.

Last Sunday (18), the African Union approved a proposal for an open-ended ban on the slaughter and sale of animal skins across Africa.

But high demand coupled with high prices paid for fur fuels animal theft, and Donkey Sanctuary says it has discovered animals being transported to places where trade is allowed.

However, there could soon be a turning point, with the governments of African states and Brazil discussing banning the slaughter and export of donkeys in response to dwindling populations.

“Between 2016 and 2019, we estimate that about half of Kenya’s donkeys were slaughtered [para abastecer o comércio de pele],” says Solomon Onyango, who works for Nairobi-based Donkey Sanctuary.

These are the same animals that transport people, goods, water and food, and are the backbone of poor rural communities. Therefore, the scale and rapid growth of the fur trade alarmed activists and experts and led many people to participate in demonstrations against the fur trade in Kenya.

In Brazil, a legal imbroglio allows slaughters to continue to occur in the state of Bahia, where three meatpacking plants operate in the sector.

After a series of actions calling for the ban, a 2021 decision by the Federal Regional Court of the 1st region (TRF-1) maintained the activity. But a year later, the same court banned slaughter across the country, on the grounds of health risk and the survival of the species in the Northeast.

The slaughterhouses and the government of Bahia argue that the first decision is the one that counts — that is, the sector can continue operating. NGOs and animal rights organizations disagree and say that the TRF’s second decision should be followed. Justice has yet to rule on the case.

The Chamber of Deputies also discusses the issue and, in November 2023, approved a project that prohibits the slaughter of donkeys, donkeys and horses for the trade of meat, skin and other parts. It still needs to be analyzed by the Constitution, Justice and Citizenship Commission.

Steve hopes a possible ban across Africa will help protect the animals, “or the next generation won’t have donkeys.”

But couldn’t bans across Africa and Brazil just end up shifting trade elsewhere?

Ejiao producers often used donkey skins sourced from China. But according to the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the number of donkeys in the country has plummeted from 11 million in 1990 to just under 2 million in 2021.

At the same time, ejiao went from a niche luxury product to a popular and widely available item.

And Chinese companies have sourced their fur supplies abroad. Donkey slaughterhouses have been established in parts of Africa, South America and Asia.

In Africa, this has led to a grim tug-of-war over trade.

In Ethiopia, where the consumption of donkey meat is taboo, one of the country’s two donkey slaughterhouses was closed in 2017 in response to public and social media protests.

Countries such as Tanzania and Ivory Coast have banned the slaughter and export of donkey skins in 2022, but China’s neighbor Pakistan embraces the trade. Late last year, press reports touted the country’s first “official donkey breeding farm” to breed “some of the best breeds.”

And it’s a big deal. According to Professor Lauren Johnston, from the University of Sydney, a scholar of China-Africa relations, the ejiao market in China increased from around US$3.2 billion in 2013 to around US$7.8 billion in 2020.

It has become a concern for public health authorities, animal welfare activists and even international crime investigators.

The research further revealed that shipments of donkey skins are used to traffic other illegal wildlife products. And there is concern that national bans on the trade will end up pushing it further underground.

For the leaders of the affected countries, there is a fundamental question: are donkeys worth more to a developing economy dead or alive?

“Most people in my community are small-scale farmers and use their donkeys to sell produce,” says Steve. He was saving money by selling water to pay his tuition to study medicine.

Faith Burden, veterinarian and deputy chief executive of Donkey Sanctuary, says animals are “absolutely intrinsic” to rural life in many parts of the world. They are strong and adaptable animals. “A donkey can go 24 hours without drinking water and rehydrate very quickly, without any problems.”

But, despite all their qualities, donkeys do not reproduce easily or quickly. So campaigners fear that if trade is not reduced, populations will continue to shrink, depriving poorer people of a lifeline as well as companionship.

“We don’t breed our donkeys for mass slaughter,” explains Onyango.

Professor Lauren Johnston recalls that donkeys “carried the poor” for millennia. “They carry children, women. They carried Mary when she was pregnant with Jesus,” she says.

Women and girls, she adds, bear the weight of loss when an animal is taken. “Once the donkey is gone, women basically become the donkey again,” she explains. And there is a bitter irony in this, because ejiao is marketed primarily to wealthier Chinese women.

It’s a medicine that’s thousands of years old and is believed to have countless benefits, from strengthening the blood to aiding sleep and increasing fertility.

But it was a 2011 Chinese TV show called “Empresses in the Palace” — a fictional tale of an imperial court — that raised the drug’s profile.

“It was an intelligent product placement”, explains Professor Lauren. “The women on the show consumed ejiao every day to stay beautiful and healthy — for skin and fertility. It became a product of elite femininity. Ironically, it is now destroying the lives of many African women.”

Steve, who is 24, is worried that he and his donkeys have lost control over their lives and livelihoods. “I’m stuck now,” he says.

Working with a local animal welfare charity in Nairobi, Brooke works to find donkeys for young people like Steve who need them to access work and education.

Janneke Merkx of Donkey Sanctuary says the more countries create legislation to protect their donkeys, “the harder it will be.”

“What we would like to see is ejiao companies stop importing donkey skins and invest in sustainable alternatives — like cellular agriculture [produzindo colágeno em laboratórios]. There are already safe and effective ways to do this.”

Faith of Donkey Sanctuary calls the donkey skin trade “unsustainable and inhumane.”

“They are being stolen, potentially walked hundreds of miles, kept in a crowded corral and then slaughtered in front of the other donkeys,” she says. “They need us to report this.”

Brooke gave Steve a new donkey, a female, who he named Joy Lucky. He feels lucky and happy to have her.

“I know she will help me achieve my dreams,” he says. “And I will make sure she is protected.”