I like donkeys. In fact I like them a lot. I like their modesty, humility and their humble demeanour. Their submissive character leads to their abuse and, by God, China and their damnable traditional medicine has placed a demand on donkey skins to the point where the world’s donkey population in the next five years could be wiped out completely. And they’ll suffer in the process.

This short article, as you can well see, has nothing directly to do with pictures of cats or cats anywhere although there is a connection because China is the country where, historically, they have brutally killed millions of cats for their meat and millions more for their skins so that people in the West can have fur-trimmed items of clothing.
China requires nearly 5 million skins every year to make a gel called “ejiao”. They believe that it is a remedy for all manner of troubles ranging from colds to wrinkles. It’s complete mumbo-jumbo. It is pseudo-science rooted in Chinese history which has been brought forward to the modern age to be the cause of this mass slaughter and ill-treatment and frankly it disgusts me. It should disgust everybody else and I want as many people as possible to spread the word on this and therefore I would humbly ask people to click on the Facebook and Twitter social media buttons above.
This gel was once the preserve of emperors but it is now highly sought after by the middle classes of China who are growing in number as the country becomes richer. Production has grown 20% annually between 2013 and 2016, reports the British animal welfare group Donkey Sanctuary.
In the world, there are currently approximately 45.8 million donkeys. China’s domestic population of donkeys has collapsed by 76% since 1992. I presume this is because they like killing the donkeys for their skins to make this ridiculous gel.
As a consequence, the country imports most of their donkey skins. They mainly come from traders in South America, Africa and Asia. As a consequence, the donkey population in Brazil has declined by 28% since 2007. It has declined by more than 33% in Botswana and more than 50% in Kyrgyzstan.
The chief executive of Donkey Sanctuary, Mike Baker, has said that the Chinese skin trade had resulted in “suffering on an enormous and unacceptable scale”. The animals are kept in unhygienic and inhumane conditions. They are skinned alive, I am told. The supply chain is unregulated because of Chinese consumers desire for this so-called medicine which has no scientific backing whatsoever.
The Chinese authorities will do nothing about it quite clearly. They have never shown any intention to curb consumer demand such as this one. They simply do not have the sensitivities to think about such matters. It is time for the world to act against animal cruelty of this nature. It is time for the Chinese authorities to disseminate information about traditional Chinese medicine which is factually accurate and thereby gradually erode the ignorance and beliefs of these consumers. It is the only way to protect donkeys and other animals at risk in matters such as these.
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