ACT NOW: Keep wild burros OUT of the skin trade

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has grounded its helicopters for foaling season, but unfortunately this break only applies to our nation’s wild horses. The agency has turned its focus to wild burros and over 2,000 are in the agency’s crosshairs.

The BLM continues to press on with an aggressive plan to remove at least 19,000 wild horses and burros from federal lands this year. And since burros do not have a designated birthing season in the same way that wild horses do, the BLM plans to continue on with its round-ups, targeting thousands of burros for removal starting in just a few short weeks.

The repercussions for captured wild burros are especially devastating. The increasing number of BLM-branded burros that are arriving in kill pens and livestock auctions has raised serious concerns about burros being exported for slaughter. Some may even become victims of the donkey skin trade for the production of ejiao, medicinal gelatin that is made from boiling the hides of these animals.

Each year, millions of donkeys are brutally slaughtered for the production of ejiao. The donkey skin trade is now decimating global donkey populations — and every federally protected burro at a slaughter auction could be in danger of entering that trade.

We have a chance to stop this pipeline in its tracks. The Ejiao Act (H.R. 5203), has been introduced in the House of Representatives and would ban the knowing sale or transportation of ejiao made using donkey skin, or products containing ejiao made using donkey skin, in interstate or foreign commerce.

Will you contact your elected officials and ask them to sign on in support of this important bill?

The BLM’s increasingly aggressive roundup strategies are putting more wild horses and burros in holding every year. And the agency’s Adoption Incentive Program (AIP) is funneling unseen numbers of these federally protected animals into the slaughter pipeline.

This isn’t an isolated issue — we’re seeing an uptick in the number of burros dumped in kill pens across the country that’s consistent with the start of the AIP and the increase in demand for ejiao too.

We need you to stand up for America’s wild burros. Will you contact your representatives and ask that they co-sponsor and support the Ejiao Act (H.R. 5203) today?

Thanks for your support,

AWHC Team