Donkey hide trade goes unabated in India: Brooke India

Open sale of donkey meat is going on unabated as people believe it can cure several ailments, including falling libido among men

In some areas of Andhra Pradesh alone, hundreds of donkeys are illegally procured and butchered for meat every Thursday and Sunday. In AP Guntur district's Tadepalli locality, several meat shops openly sell donkey meat despite a ban by the government. The open sale of donkey meat is going on unabated as people, including medical practitioners, believe it can cure several ailments, including falling libido, among men.

These are some of the findings of a study on Donkey Hides Trade (DHT) initiated by The Brooke India, the India chapter of the United Kingdom-based international equine charity Brooke. The Study, titled The Hidden Hide was conducted by Chandigarh based Sharat K Verma, the editor of the Delhi edition of the First India newspaper, who travelled across the country to bring to fore the unabated illegal trade of donkey hides in India.

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The report has now been submitted to Dr Praveen Malik, Commissioner Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India.

From the 2012 Livestock Census until the latest Livestock Census of 2019, the donkey population has decreased by 61.23 per cent. Gopal R Surabathula, the founder and secretary of Animal Rescue Organisation, says he is pursuing a legal battle to get the illegal sale of donkey meat and slaughter of donkeys stopped. “If the slaughter of donkeys continues at this pace, 10 years down the line, the entire donkey population would be wiped out,” Surabathula said in the report.

Surabathula has been rescuing donkeys that are illegally brought to Andhra Pradesh and runs a small donkey sanctuary for rescued animals. Surabathula said that he doesn’t know where the donkey skins were disposed of, but he has photo evidence that some persons come and collect donkey skins from the butchers.

According to the report, China is blamed directly and indirectly for the fall in the donkey population not only in India but across the globe as donkey hides are used for manufacturing Ejiao, a traditional Chinese medicine.

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Ejiao is donkey hide gelatin or ass-hide glue obtained from the skin of a donkey by soaking and stewing. Ejiao is an ingredient to treat different types of illness such as bleeding, dizziness, insomnia and dry cough. It is also a health fad, believed to prolong life, increase sex drive and maintain beauty, and has seen an explosion in demand for China's rising middle class.

Alarmed by the trigger of a drastic decrease in the donkey population in India, Brooke India (BI) planned to conduct an investigative undercover study. This study is based on the hypothesis that an illegal DHT exists in India.

Sharad Verma, speaking to DH, said the study has established that DHT is going on illegally in India and illegal export of living donkeys, their hide, and meat is taking place across borders via easily accessible routes. The investigator collected substantial anecdotal evidence on the video camera to conclude that DHT is taking place in the country undetected.

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