The Chinese-driven donkey-skin trade is senseless and brutal. It’s time to BAN it for good!
When an entire species faces complete obliteration at the hands of a single nation, we cannot stand by and watch the senseless slaughter happen.
At Network for Animals, we see countless atrocities committed against the animals of this world.
Sometimes, something comes along that is so atrocious – so utterly appalling – that WE HAVE TO ACT.
The Chinese trade in donkey skins is one such case - if this trade continues at its current rate, donkeys could well be extinct within FIVE years.
We are fighting the trade (and rescuing and helping care for donkeys in desperate need) on many fronts, in several countries - but we very much need your support to push on vigorously to end this atrocity.
Surely you don’t want to tell your children that donkeys USED TO EXIST?
Donkey bones at slaughterhouse
The Chinese kill donkeys to use their skins for ejiao, a cosmetic that has never been proven to work.
Not only are donkeys being senselessly slaughtered, but brutally too: in many cases, to save money, instead of being killed humanely, they are beaten to death with axes or hammers and left to bleed out until they die.
Every time someone smears this cosmetic on their face, ANOTHER DONKEY IS DEAD.
Ejiano is sold at pharmacies in China
So many animals have been killed to make cosmetics that the Chinese have almost exhausted their donkey population. Now, they have turned to Africa.
Here, impoverished rural people use donkeys to transport their children to school, collect water from rivers and carry firewood to cook their food. When the Chinese offer these poor people a wad of cash for their donkeys, they are often unable to refuse - for some, it’s more money than they earn in a month. They don’t realize the consequences until later when children walk miles to school and women carry water from the rivers. Then it’s too late for the donkeys and the people.
Frequently, if donkeys can’t be bought, gangs are recruited to steal them for the Chinese trade.
The cheapest way to kill a donkey is BRUTALLY, with an AXE OR HAMMER. This is how hundreds of innocent animals are slaughtered EVERY DAY in Africa.
Please, donate generously today to help support our work to STOP THIS FOREVER!
Very few places permit the slaughter of donkeys for their skins, and those that do have strict rules
about how many can be killed, and how.
To circumvent the law, the Chinese set up secret slaughterhouses in the bush and employ cheap labor to beat the animals to death with axes or hammers.
Recently, we learned about one such donkey slaughterhouse in Shinyanga, a remote region of Tanzania. Here, we found that thousands of donkeys were being killed, even though the permit only allowed for 20 donkeys to be killed per day. The humane killing device had been unplugged and instead, the animals were being clubbed to death with hammers.
The stench of death and suffering brought our team to its knees. Young, pregnant, wounded and sick animals – ALL were being ruthlessly slaughtered by cruel, often drunken workers.
Network for Animals immediately took action, joining forces with the Arusha Society for the Protection of Animals (ASPA), and together we managed to get the slaughterhouse closed down.
But the problem is that if one slaughterhouse closes down, the Chinese simply move their operations elsewhere. And every time that happens, donkeys get one step closer to extinction.
As an animal lover and someone who cares about the future of this planet, PLEASE ACT NOW to help ban this brutal and needless trade.
I urge you to tell others about this horror and urge your elected representative to ask your government to ban the trade in donkey skins and the export of donkey skins to China.
If we don’t do this, the day will come when donkeys are just a distant memory - a soundtrack on an old movie, or a story in a book. They will all be gone.
Please, donate today if you possibly can. We are in this fight for the donkeys until we WIN!
For the donkeys - and all the animals,
For the animals,
David Barritt
Executive Director
Network for Animals
P.S. To read more about the horrors we uncovered at the Chinese-run slaughterhouse in Shinyanga, Tanzania, just click here. Your donation today is extremely important but please also join Network for Animals in our efforts to bring to the world’s attention the horror of the donkey-skin trade and to urge governments and businesses to have nothing to do with any Chinese company that wants to import donkey skins.
Images: Banner: Tony Karumba; Image 1: NSPCA/Africa Geographic; Image 2: Rachel Nuwer/The New York Times; Image 3: China Limited/Alamy Stock Photo; Image 4: Oxpeckers; Image 5 & 6: NFA