Donkeys' Heads Bashed in With Sledgehammers for Chinese Ejiao Industry

These gentle animals are killed for one reason: so that their skins can be sold to leading pharmaceutical companies in China, where they are boiled down to make gelatine for ejiao, a traditional Chinese "medicine" believed to improve blood circulation.

While African state leaders have approved a ban that makes the slaughter of donkeys for their skin illegal across the entire continent and some countries have developed policies to ban the export of donkey skins to China, the Northern Territory government has investigated implementing a live-donkey export industry.

At every farm visited by PETA Asia's observer, donkeys were stuck in small, filthy concrete-floored pens. The only water available to them was filthy and green with algae.

At a donkey market, hundreds of doomed animals forced to wait in crowded pens in the full summer sun for their turn to be bought and sent to slaughter. Terrified donkeys were beaten with sticks, including one who was hit and screamed at when she attempted to escape through a gate that was left open.

At the end of their dreadful existence, they are killed in the most inhumane ways. Some of the donkeys continue to breathe and move after being bludgeoned and having their throats cut.

Today, the market is growing rapidly. Donkeys are now being imported into China from other countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America for slaughter in order to meet the demand. Read more about the ejiao trade here.

What You Can Do

The Northern Territory government exports donkey hides to China to fuel the cruel ejiao trade and may consider expanding this business by implementing a live-donkey export industry. Please urge Agriculture Minister Murray Watt to reject any plans to send live donkeys to be slaughtered in China immediately.

You may use the provided text, but your message will carry more weight if you write your own customised message and subject line. Personalised letters always work best.

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Mr

Murray

Watt

Australian Government

Dear Minister Watt,

Donkeys are highly sensitive animals who would suffer tremendously if they were exported to the horrific ejiao industry to be killed in the most inhumane ways in China, a country that has virtually no laws regarding animal protection or welfare. Footage shows farmers swinging a sledgehammer at a donkey's forehead and then cutting the animal's throat. Some of the animals continue to breathe and move after being bludgeoned. These inhumane practices would be deemed unlawful in Australia.

Free-roaming wild donkeys in the Northern Territory live in remote, inaccessible areas, far from the human population, and they deserve to be left alone and not exploited for economic profit. The conditions of transport, handling, and slaughter of these gentle animals cannot be efficiently monitored or controlled by Australian authorities. Furthermore, the Australian live-export trade has been exposed numerous times in the past for the cruelty that animals endure before arriving at their destinations – they have been trampled to death and have died of dehydration, starvation, or disease while being transported. There is simply no humane way to ship thousands of animals around the world.

The governments of 10 African countries, including Tanzania and Uganda, have banned donkey-skin exports, and an additional four countries are closing down donkey abattoirs. It's time for Australia to do the same.

Please don't add to the suffering of donkeys in the horrific ejiao industry. I hope you'll take immediate action to prohibit the export of all live donkeys to China. Support for such a horrid industry by a world leader only legitimises it.

Sincerely,
{user_data~First Name} {user_data~Last Name}
{user_data~EMail Address}

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