Fugitive donkey skin trade outlawed in 55 nations

Charities that help animals are happy about a ban in Africa on the trade of donkey skins.

It will be against the law to kill donkeys for their skin in 55 countries in Africa.

The animals’ skins are needed because a lot of people want to use them for a Chinese medicine called Ejiao, which is made from donkey hides.

African leaders agreed to ban something at the end of their meeting in Ethiopia.

The Donkey Sanctuary charity said that the trade is very cruel and causing a lot of harm to donkeys all over the world, especially in Africa and South America.

Some people think Ejiao can make you look younger and keep you healthy, but there’s no proof of this. Chinese companies used to get the skins of donkeys from China to make their products. However, when the number of animals in the country fell, they started to look in other countries.

“Initially, our governments thought this was a good chance, so many legal slaughterhouses started in Africa,” said Dr. Solomon Onyango from the Donkey Sanctuary in Kenya.

“In Kenya, from 2016 to 2019, about half of our donkeys were killed for the trade,” he said.

Dr Onyango said to media that the ban will help protect donkeys and the people who depend on them.

Roughly 35 million donkeys out of a total of 53 million in the world can be found in Africa. Poor people in rural areas use them to travel and transport things like water, food, and other stuff.

A recent study in Ethiopia found that owning a donkey can make a big difference in how much money you make. It could mean the difference between being very poor and having enough to live on.

Raphael Kinoti, the boss of The Brooke animal charity in East Africa, said it’s a great time for African communities that have been using donkeys for a very long time.

“He said that killing donkeys for their skin in Africa has taken away peoples’ ways of making a living and has caused the continent to lose its culture, different kinds of plants and animals, and who they are as a people. ”

“We ask all AU members to follow the decision for the benefit of everyone. “