Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 16 June 2018
Donkeys stolen, skinned in Africa to feed Chinese demand

By SAM McNEIL among traditional medi-
TOM ODULA cine enthusiasts.
Associated Press One such advocate is Fu
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Yanlin, a professor at Beijing
Dawn was just beginning University of Chinese Medi-
to break when Joseph Ka- cine, who says he often
monjo Kariuki woke to find prescribes ejiao to the 100
his donkeys missing. The patients he sees a week for
villager searched the bush urinary, cardiovascular, gy-
frantically for the animals necological and other ail-
he depends on to de- ments.
liver water for a living, but The surge in ejiao demand
they were nowhere to be has driven the price of don-
found.It was the village's key hides up by nearly five
children who led Kariuki to times — from $78 per hide
the ghastly remains: three in 2010 to $405 in 2015, ac-
bloody, severed donkey cording to the Shandong
heads lying on the ground. Ejiao Association. China's
"I was in shock," said Kariuki, donkey population, mean-
37, who is known in his Ke- while, has halved from 9.4
nyan village of Naivasha million in 1996 to 5.5 million
as "Jose wa Mapunda" — in 2015, according to Chi-
"Joseph of the Donkeys" in nese state media, driving
Swahili. producers to look abroad.
Kariuki believes his donkeys In response to the surging
were the latest victims of demand, state-built don-
a black market for donkey key abattoirs have sprung
skins, the key ingredient in up in the African nations of
a Chinese health fad that's Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya,
threatening the beasts of Ethiopia and Botswana. Ni-
burden many Africans rely In this May 14, 2018, photo, a retailer stands next to various products of "ejiao," or donkey skin gel ger's hide exports tripled.
on for farm work and trans- in Chinese, in the town of Dong'e in eastern China. Botswana slaughtered 3
porting heavy loads. Associated Press percent of its total donkey
From Kenya to Burkina population in six months,
Faso, Egypt to Nigeria, 1.8 million to 1.2 million. Ke- energy," reads a slogan they've been increasingly according the Donkey
animal rights groups say, nya's three licensed slaugh- printed on the side of a replaced by machines on Sanctuary.
agents are seeking to feed terhouses butcher 1,000 hotel dedicated to gelatin farms. More than 2 million of the
China's insatiable appetite donkeys a day to supply tourism. Guo Fanli, an economist in world's 44 million donkeys
for a gelatin they call ejiao skins to China, said Calvin Farmers raise hundreds of the southern city of Shen- are killed for their skins ev-
(pronounced "uh-jee-ow"), Onyango, program devel- donkeys in metal-roofed zhen, said Qin and DEEJ ery year, according to
made from stewed donkey opment manager of the dirt paddocks surrounding have inflated ejiao's value Donkey Sanctuary.
skins that purports to pro- Donkey Sanctuary Kenya. the town. Most donkeys by marketing what was In rural parts of western
vide health benefits. "We do not have many at three farms The Asso- typically used for what was Zimbabwe, there are often
Shrinking donkey herds in donkeys and most people ciated Press visited were believed to be its blood- more donkeys than cars on
China have driven ejiao do not want to sell their tagged with the initials of boosting properties as the roads.
producers to seek out don- donkeys. So to keep sup- the Dong'e Ejiao Corpora- something with far wider Farmers like the Chingodza
key skins from Africa, Aus- plying these slaughter- tion Limited, or DEEJ, the benefits to body health family are resisting market
tralia and South America, houses, we have ended nation's largest producer of and beauty. pressure to sell their don-
threatening the world's up with businesspeople or donkey gelatin. "By enriching the cultural keys, vital for farm work
donkey population and brokers stealing other peo- The company processes meaning of ejiao, and over- and transportation to the
driving violent crime and ple's donkeys to supply the about 1 million skins a year stating its actual effects, biggest nearby town, Seke,
protests across Africa, the slaughterhouses," Onyango and makes up 63 percent the company has success- about 40 kilometers (25
activists say. said. of the ejiao market, ac- fully made it into a health miles) outside of Harare.
Kariuki founded a protest Onyango said that the rate cording to the Forward In- product with multiple uses "I like my donkeys. They
group "Tunza Punda Wako" at which donkeys were be- dustry Research Institute, a that can be bought as a help a lot and are dear to
or "Take Care of Your Don- ing slaughtered meant that Chinese market research gift," Guo said. me," said Jeffrey Chingod-
key" in Swahili. They've pick- there could be none left in firm. DEEJ says in its latest "The more it has been za, 65, as he put a yoke on
eted the abattoir in Naiva- five years. annual report that its profits hyped, the more miserably a donkey. "I won't sell for
sha, accusing it of driving From Kenya, the donkey rose 10 percent to $313 mil- it could fall," he said. export to Chinese abat-
the skin thefts. hides travel thousands of lion last year. Others have echoed skep- toirs," he said.
"At this rate we will tell our kilometers (miles) to China. DEEJ president Qin Yufeng ticism of ejiao's uses. Chi- His son 20-year old son
children that donkeys once Many of them end up in declined to be interviewed na's government health Tawanda, however, said
existed," he said. an eastern town called but sent a statement to the agency said ejiao market- surging prices are tempt-
Fourteen African govern- Dong'e, where most of the AP saying ejiao has benefit- ing was based on "supersti- ing.
ments have banned the world's ejiao is made. ed more than 20,000 poor tious concepts." "When you have a car and
export of donkey skins, ac- On the road into Dong'e, households in 1,000 towns. "Donkey hide is just 'boiled you get the first buyer say-
cording to the U.K.-based billboard after billboard Qin said the soaring de- donkey skin,'" the com- ing 'I will give you $3,000 for it
animal welfare group Don- proclaims the purported mand for ejiao isn't the rea- mission said in a February and the second buyer says
key Sanctuary. curative powers of the gel- son that donkey popula- statement on the micro- I will give you $6,000,' what
In Kenya, the donkey popu- atin. tions are shrinking. Rather, blogging site, Sina Weibo. would you do?" Tawanda
lation has fallen in the past "Ejiao, eat for a long life, fewer donkeys are being The commission took down said. "I will definitely sell. All
nine years by a third — from lose weight, and get more bred, he wrote, because the post after an uproar of us want money."q