Donkeys face multiple welfare challenges globally, from overwork in low-income countries to a growing international trade in their hides for ejiao production in Chinese traditional medicine. Understanding donkey welfare requires both development and trade perspectives.
Donkey welfare presents a global challenge with two distinct dimensions. In developing countries, working donkeys are essential agricultural assets whose welfare is often poor due to owner poverty, inadequate veterinary access, and knowledge gaps rather than indifference. Organisations like Brooke have demonstrated that welfare training, free veterinary care, and harness improvement can achieve dramatic welfare improvements for working donkeys whose owners are motivated to care for them better once the means to do so are available. The ejiao trade represents a different and growing threat: commercial slaughter for hide extraction under unregulated conditions that cause acute suffering across multiple continents, and population-level declines that threaten the livelihoods of the communities that depend on these animals. Consumer rejection of ejiao products is a direct welfare intervention.