It's a tragic scene - while transported thousands of miles to slaughter, these donkeys have no room to move. There is no access to food or water.
Some of them suffer the entire journey with severed hooves or legs. It sounds like a horror film, but in reality, it is the norm of the donkey skin trade. This fate awaits nearly half the world's donkey population in the next five years.Sign the petition today and tell the Chinese government to make it illegal for the ejiao industry to source donkey-hide gelatin from the donkey skin trade!Ejiao is a traditional Chinese medicine, and 5 million donkeys a year are slaughtered to fulfill the demand for the gelatin used to make it. China's donkey population has dwindled from 11 million in 1992 to just 2.6 million today. The decline in the domestic population has forced the ejiao industry to begin
aggressively sourcing donkeys from the rest of the world.If a donkey is sick or even maimed, its hide is still suitable to sell in the skin trade. That means that handlers do not have to treat donkeys humanely. The only thing they care about is profits.
They drag them by their ears and tails. No donkey is safe, from heavily pregnant mares to the sick and injured. Even young foals are not spared.
You would think that treating a living thing with kindness would be obvious, but not to these heartless traders.Donkeys support 500 million people across the globe. Many of these people are impoverished, and a donkey used ethically to transport goods, water, or people is the difference between death and survival. It is unethical and unfair to steal resources from other countries to fulfill one industry's demand. Ejiao holds an important role in Chinese cultural heritage. But the ejiao industry needs to find more sustainable ways to source ingredients that do not require the merciless torture of donkeys.
Use your voice to tell the Chinese government to cut off imports from the donkey skin trade. Let's demand that the ejiao industry find an ethical alternative for the ingredients they use! Sign the petition and ask the Chinese government to make it illegal for the ejiao industry to source donkey-hide gelatin from the donkey skin trade!