Amazon’s complicity in the violent donkey skin trade - and how we can stop it
Ejiao, produced when collagen from donkey skin is boiled down and mixed with other ingredients, stems from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). It’s said to offer the consumer a range of health benefits including increased sleep aid, faster coagulating blood, and improved fertility. However, there’s no evidence-based proof in ejiao’s purported health properties.
Global demand for donkey skins is putting great pressure on populations, with risk of extinction likely if current trends do not halt. Roughly six million donkeys per year are slaughtered for skin according to UK-based animal welfare charity The Donkey Sanctuary — within the next five years almost half of the world’s donkey population could be wiped out due to ejiao production.
A 2017 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia investigation uncovered shocking footage of abuse happening within China’s donkey slaughter industry. Foals as young as five months old were bashed in the head with a sledgehammer; some had blades dragged across their throats while alive — all so someone can take a dubious pill to ensure easier sleep at night(!)
Many animal welfare organizations have voiced concern over the drastic decline facing donkeys around the world; the high demand for ejiao and the animal’s naturally slow reproductive nature work hand-in-hand to ensure population growth remains difficult.
China had a total of 10.3 million donkeys living in the country in 1950 — today that number is around 1.7 million; as a result, China has begun sourcing elsewhere — primarily within Africa. Many African communities, relying on donkeys for their livelihood, have been devastated after learning their animals were stolen during the night to meet ejiao’s demand.
The problems don’t end there. In 2019, the World Organisation for Animal Health suggested an outbreak of influenza in Nigeria, killing 270 equines, could be traced to the illegal transport of donkeys from a neighboring country.
Furthermore, donkeys in the ejiao industry suffer transportation in overloaded, dangerous vehicles; starvation; inhumane treatment; brutal slaughtering methods; and overall neglect, allowing for painful wounds to fester. Their transportation is so barbaric around 20 percent arrive at slaughterhouses already dead.
It doesn’t need to be this way, as Donkey Sanctuary’s Campaign Manager Janneke Merkx, explains: “The main ingredient in ejiao is collagen, which is extracted from the skins of donkeys. The technology already exists to create collagen in labs, which would provide the ejiao industry with an entirely ethical and sustainable alternative for donkey-derived collagen. There are some challenges to overcome before lab-derived ejiao can become the norm, [however] the trade in donkey skins cannot continue in its current form, and The Donkey Sanctuary believes that steps can be taken towards a sustainable future for donkeys and the ejiao industry.”
Thankfully, the future does seem to hold some promise for donkeys - at least those within Africa. In February of 2024, African Heads of State implemented a ban on the slaughter of donkeys for their skin, offering legal protection to the 33 million donkeys that call the continent home.
Donkey skins at a slaughterhouse in Kenya. Credit: PETA Asia
Amazon’s Complicity
Not exactly known for its esteemed ethics, mega-corporation Amazon has been criticized for a litany of unethical behavior including tax avoidance, workers’ rights abuses, environmental destruction, and mis-treatment of animals.
Amazon’s utter disregard of animal life in order to make a profit is not something surprising, given the inherent nature of its business. It regularly sells products containing the flesh of factory farmed animals and happily caters to those looking to purchase live beings such as lobsters, shrimp, and small fish.
“Medicine made from animal parts doesn’t belong in the 21st century.”
Though Amazon claims to comply with local state laws on selling banned items, an investigation by Wired found at least 15 edible items claiming to contain ejiao sold in California, where consumption of equine is illegal (horses and donkeys are classified as ‘non-food animals’, along with dogs and cats, in the state). Four donkey-containing items were available to ship directly from Amazon’s warehouses.
“Amazon must stop selling any products containing ejiao,” says PETA Asia’s Press Officer, Keith Guo. “Medicine made from animal parts doesn’t belong in the 21st century. Amazon should stop turning a blind eye to third-party sellers and implement standards to ensure that ejiao is not sold on its site. PETA urges consumers to reject cruelty to animals and save donkeys’ lives by simply choosing vegan alternatives, never buying ejiao products, and refusing to shop at stores that sell them.”
Merkx concurs, “The Donkey Sanctuary would greatly welcome a decision by Amazon to ban the sale of ejiao products on its platforms worldwide, as eBay has already done.”
At a donkey market, hundreds of animals are forced to wait in crowded pens. Credit: PETA Asia
Devalued Life
In the case of lobsters — an animal known to be sentient and capable of feeling pain—many online retailers, including Amazon, offer live shipping. Lobsters are forced to endure travel causing severe pain and distress and, once arriving at their destination, will likely end up being boiled alive — a method described as “unnecessary torture” by researcher Gordon Gunter in the journal Science.
Other live animals available to purchase online range from small insects all the way up to cows and pigs. Websites such as Gumtree, certain pet stores, and Europe’s SellMyLivestock exist to treat animals as if they are fast-fashion commodities to be mass-produced and peddled for profit.
From the individual seller who breeds exotic parrots to be shipped across the country all the way up to owners of 21st century mega-farms such as the ‘pork skyscraper’ opened in China’s Hubei province, the mindset behind this treatment of non-human animals remains the same. The beings within these industries are no longer seen as thinking, feeling individuals, rather they are viewed as ‘live-stock’ — (pause to consider the grossness of such a term).
Not only do such mega-farms degrade the animals’ lives, forcing them into confined, unnatural gray spaces, but they also pose a major risk to the spreading of zoonotic diseases. Thousands of animals confined in closed buildings creates the perfect breeding ground for viruses — if one was to find its way outside the confines of the farm it could spread without prejudice. In a world still reeling from the impacts of Covid-19, we should heed the warnings of experts who say consuming less meat is key to building a sustainable future.
Take action by signing our petition asking Amazon to stop supporting the donkey skin trade here and speak up for lobsters by joining Species Unite in calling on Amazon to prohibit the sale and shipment of live lobsters.
Written by Calum Armitage
Calum Armitage is a writer and activist from Belfast, Ireland with an interest in intersectional veganism, social justice, and journalism. He runs the blog The New Transition on Medium, writing about the fight for human and non-human rights.
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