NAIROBI, Kenya: Donkey theft is increasingly common in many parts of Africa – and other parts of the world that have large populations of these working animals, largely because of the controversial global donkey skin trade.
Its origin is thousands of miles from Kenya. In China, a traditional medicine that is made from gelatin in donkey skin is in great demand. His name is Ejiao.
It is believed to have health-enhancing and youth-preserving properties. Donkey hides are boiled to extract gelatin, which is made into powder, pills or liquid, or added to food.
Campaigners against the trade say people and the donkeys they depend on are victims of unsustainable demand for the traditional ingredient Ejiao.
In a new report, Donkey Sanctuary, which has been campaigning against the trade since 2017, estimates that at least 5.9 million donkeys are slaughtered for supply worldwide each year. And the charity says demand is growing, although the BBC has been unable to independently verify the figures.
It is very difficult to get an accurate picture of how many donkeys were killed to supply the Ejiao industry.
In Africa, home to about two-thirds of the world’s 53 million donkeys, there is a patchwork of regulations. Exporting donkey skins is legal in some countries and illegal in others. But high demand and high prices for skins are fueling donkey theft, and the Donkey Sanctuary says it has discovered animals being moved across international borders to reach places where the trade is legal.
But there could be a turning point soon, as the governments of all African states and the government of Brazil are set to ban the slaughter and export of donkeys in response to their dwindling donkey populations.
Solomon Onyango, who works for Donkey Sanctuary and is based in Nairobi, says: “We estimate that between 2016 and 2019, about half of the donkeys in Kenya were slaughtered [to supply the leather trade].”
These are the same animals that carry people, goods, water and food – the backbone of poor rural communities. So the scale and rapid growth of the leather trade has alarmed activists and experts and prompted many people in Kenya to participate in demonstrations against the leather trade.
The proposal for a pan-African ban for an indefinite period is on the agenda of the summit of the African Union, where all the representatives of the states will meet on February 17 and 18.
Women and girls bear the burden when an animal is taken from them.
Ejiao makers used skins from donkeys originating in China. However, according to the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the number of donkeys in the country has fallen from 11 million in 1990 to nearly two million in 2021. At the same time, Ejiao has changed from a niche luxury to a popular, widely available product.
Chinese companies sourced their leather supplies overseas. Donkey slaughterhouses were established in parts of Africa, South America and Asia.
In Africa, this led to a grim tug of war over trade.
In Ethiopia, where eating donkey meat is taboo, one of the country’s two donkey slaughterhouses was closed in 2017 in response to public protests and social media outrage.
Countries including Tanzania and Ivory Coast have banned the slaughter and export of donkey skins in 2022, but China’s neighbor Pakistan accepts the trade. Late last year, media reports trumpeted the country’s first “official donkey breeding farm” there to raise “some of the finest breeds.”
Women and girls, she adds, bear the brunt of the loss when an animal is taken from them. “Once the donkey is gone, then the women basically become donkeys again,” she explains. And there is a bitter irony in this, because Ejiao is mainly marketed to wealthier Chinese women.
It’s a thousand-year-old remedy believed to have numerous benefits from strengthening the blood to promoting sleep and increasing fertility.
