Ejiao — a traditional Chinese medicine ingredient derived from boiled donkey hides — is driving a global donkey welfare crisis as demand far exceeds sustainable supply.
The ejiao trade represents one of the most acute current animal welfare emergencies in the world. Millions of donkeys — animals that have served human communities for thousands of years as working partners — are being killed annually for a single body part, with supply driven by demand growth far exceeding any sustainable harvest. The welfare costs are concentrated in transport and slaughter: donkeys stolen or purchased from subsistence farmers are transported across borders in severely overcrowded conditions before slaughter in facilities with inadequate stunning and handling protocols. The loss of working donkeys also creates serious welfare downstream for the communities that depend on them. Consumer action, retailer sourcing policies, and country-level export bans are the primary available interventions.