International animal welfare charity, The Donkey Sanctuary, has revealed its latest television advert which shines a light on the donkey skin trade, the single biggest threat facing donkeys around the globe.
It is the first time the donkey skin trade has featured in the charity’s television advertising and reflects how the demand for donkey skin has grown alarmingly in recent years due to the popularity of ejiao.
Ejiao is a gelatin product used in traditional Chinese medicine and commonly found in cosmetics, which is obtained from boiling donkey skin. It is believed that around six million donkeys are slaughtered each year for their skin.
As well as showing donkeys threatened by the skin trade, the advert, which in entitled The Truth has been created by Friday’s Child, an independent production company based in Brighton, also highlights donkeys suffering negligence in the UK, exploitation in the global construction industry and ingesting plastic at dump sites in Kenya.
Watch the full advert now:
‘Barbaric and unsustainable trade’
“The truth about this barbaric and unsustainable trade is that donkeys suffer at every step – from being transported long distances and held, often terrified and in overcrowded conditions, before being slaughtered and discarded after their skins have been removed,” said Marianne Steele, ceo of The Donkey Sanctuary.
“Donkeys are intelligent and sentient animals who deserve respect and protection. We will continue to work tirelessly to stop this slaughter and create a better world for donkeys everywhere.”
China’s donkey population is rapidly declining due to ejiao production and consequently agents are targeting vulnerable donkeys and their owners in other countries.
In 2021, the Ejiao Act was reintroduced in the House of Representatives to ban the sale and trade of ejiao in the US, which Brooke USA is lobbying to be implemented. Animal welfare groups including Brooke USA Foundation gathered outside Amazon’s headquarters in Virginia last October to deliver a petition of over 370,000 signatures to protest its sales of donkey skin products.
In February 2024, thanks to lobbying from Brooke and other animal welfare organisations, the African Union banned the donkey skin trade across their continent.
Images © The Donkey Sanctuary.
