A burro at RTF’s Lompoc, Calif., headquarters sanctuary. Photo by Dianna Dawson.
Animal welfare charities have welcomed an Africa-wide ban on the controversial donkey skin trade.
It will make it illegal to slaughter donkeys for their skin across the continent.
Demand for the animals’ skins is fueled by the popularity of an ancient Chinese medicine called Ejiao, traditionally made from donkey hides.
African state leaders approved the ban at the conclusion of the African Union summit in Ethiopia on Sunday, Feb. 18.
The charity, the Donkey Sanctuary, called the the trade “brutal and unsustainable” and said it had decimated donkey populations around the world, particularly in Africa and South America.
Ejiao is believed by some to have anti-ageing and health benefits, although this is unproven. Chinese companies that make it used to use skins from donkeys sourced in China. But when the numbers of the animals in the country plummeted, they looked overseas.
“At first our governments saw this as an opportunity, and many legal slaughterhouses opened in Africa,” explained Dr Solomon Onyango from the Donkey Sanctuary in Kenya.
“But, [here in Kenya], between 2016 and 2019, about half of our donkeys were killed for the trade,” he said.