The global trade in donkey skins for ejiao production has caused a welfare crisis in Africa, with donkeys stolen, killed, and trafficked across the continent at unprecedented rates.
The donkey skin trade causes multiple severe welfare harms. Donkeys stolen from communities for their skins may be transported long distances without water or food. Slaughter conditions in unlicensed facilities are typically inhumane. Communities losing their working donkeys face economic collapse. The trade has grown so rapidly that legal and illegal operations are difficult to distinguish. Several African countries have banned the trade but enforcement is challenging. The welfare of donkeys in transit and at slaughter facilities is severe. The Donkey Sanctuary campaigns extensively for a moratorium on the trade, which is growing toward unsustainability. Donkey populations cannot reproduce fast enough to sustain current harvest rates.