Donkey skin trade
Over six million donkeys are killed for their skin every year. Help us stop the killing and stop the skin trade.
Stop the skin trade
What is the donkey skin trade?
Every year, over six million donkeys are killed for their skins.
As well as the horrific impact on donkeys, it's causing communities to lose their livelihoods.
Brooke has worked hard to secure an Africa-wide ban, protecting up to 32 million donkeys. But it’s not enough.
We're calling for a worldwide ban on this cruel trade.
Watch our video
The donkey skin trade explained
What happens to the donkey skin?
The donkey skin is boiled to create a gelatine called ejiao, which is used in cosmetics and supplements around the world.
What damage is the skin trade causing?
The legal and illegal trade of donkey skins is having a huge impact on donkeys and causing their decline across Africa.
It’s predicted that Africa could lose half its population of donkeys by 2040.
The donkey skin trade affects us all, causing:
- Higher risk of diseases spreading from animals to humans, due to mislabelled donkey meat
- Extreme cruelty towards donkeys in the slaughterhouses
- Donkey theft from families who depend on them
- Gender imbalance as children and women do the work normally done by donkeys.
How can we end the donkey skin trade?
We’re calling for a global ban on the trade of donkey skins and a crackdown on cross-border smuggling of donkeys.
On the frontline, we continue to:
- Fund projects and work with organisations to keep donkeys safe
- Raise awareness and expose the scale of the trade
- Lobby policymakers to bring in laws that protect donkeys and owners.
“The donkey skin trade is one of the biggest animal welfare and socio-economic threats of our age.”
Dr Scott Miller documentary
Watch: the shocking truth behind the donkey skin trade
Dr Scott Miller – from ITV's ‘This Morning’and ‘Rescue Vet’ – and Brooke have partnered on a new film about the donkey skin trade. ‘From Skin to Skincare’ explores how half of Africa’s donkey population could be wiped out by 2040.
In the documentary, Dr Scott visits slaughterhouses and communities who have been devastated by the loss of the donkeys.
