Global demand for ejiao — a Chinese medicine ingredient made from donkey hides — has created a welfare crisis affecting millions of donkeys worldwide.
Donkeys experience the full spectrum of welfare harms in the ejiao trade: theft causing distress to working families and bonded animals, extreme long-distance transport without adequate water or feed, and slaughter in facilities lacking stunning. Surviving donkeys in affected communities face overwork as replacement animals become unaffordable, creating cascading welfare harms.