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Donkey Populations in Kenya and Ghana Are on Track to Be “Devastated” Due to Chinese Demand for Hides

by Eric Olander

The Washington Post’s West Africa correspondent Danielle Paquette and Maxwell Suuk published a compelling story this weekend on the devastation that subsistence farmers in Ghana are encountering due to donkey poaching. The animal’s hides are sought after in China where they’re used to make the traditional Chinese medicine ejiao (阿胶).

“In the remote farming town of Walewale,” according to the report, “people say hundreds of donkeys have vanished in recent years — or worse: Some animals have turned up skinned and left for dead.

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