Kenya: Ban killing and export of donkeys to China
PETA's motto is, in part: animals are not there for us to eat or exploit in any other form. The organisation campaigns against speciesism: a worldview that ranks humans as superior to all other living beings. PETA calls on compassionate people around the world to stand up for donkeys and not to buy products containing Ejiao or donkey gelatine.
Kenya Bans Killing and Export of Donkeys to China
After an investigation by PETA Asia at slaughterhouses in Mogotio and Naivasha showed that donkeys were beaten by staff, the Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Peter Munya, has now ordered the closure of all donkey slaughterhouses in Kenya by next month. PETA Asia's footage was filmed at government-approved facilities. The donkeys are killed there to be processed into a traditional Chinese medicine called Ejiao.
Over 200,000 supporters of PETA Germany and its international partner organisations had appealed to Munya in Kenya, calling for an end to the trade in donkey hides. In this industry, the animals are crammed onto trucks and transported under the most gruelling conditions to sometimes far-distant locations, for example to neighbouring countries. A journey from the Ethiopian border, for instance, can take two days. During this time the animals receive neither water nor food. Many collapse or even die. PETA Asia's investigation showed that workers left two donkeys, which had died during the long transport, lying in front of the slaughterhouse. Another donkey was so severely injured that it could no longer stand – they dragged it off the truck, threw it to the ground and kicked it.
„PETA welcomes the decision by Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya to save Kenya's donkeys. By closing these slaughterhouses, his country has severed ties with a cruel industry in which millions of gentle donkeys are killed in horrific ways”, said Jason Baker, Senior Vice President of International Campaigns at PETA Asia. “Nobody needs donkey skin – except the animals born in it. PETA now hopes that even more countries will take a stand against ejiao and follow Kenya's example.“
Pakistan and numerous African countries – including Botswana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda – have already banned Chinese-funded slaughterhouses or introduced regulations against the export of donkey hides to China. In addition, various companies, such as eBay, have committed to no longer selling products containing ejiao.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier The Role and Criticism of Recreational Hunters we shed light on the training, power and self-image of recreational hunters. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
All articles are written by IG Wild beim Wild as well as by external co-authors. Research, structuring and editorial processes may be supported by AI-assisted tools.
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