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World Donkey Day

Help Us Keep Burros Free and Wild

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

As the sun sets on Burro Awareness Month, we want to take a moment and reflect on the extraordinary impact we’ve made together this month. Thanks to your unwavering support, we’ve raised awareness in the media and Congress about the plight of the West’s incredible wild burros and built a solid foundation for the future of burro advocacy.

Chip in to Support Wild Burros

We started the month off celebrating World Donkey Day. We called upon our collective herd of wild burro advocates to ask their representatives to cosponsor the Ejiao Act. Your voices were heard—in just one day over 7,000 letters poured into Congress, advocating for the protection of burros and their domestic donkey counterparts. To date, over 31,000 advocates have called on their Members of Congress to support the Ejiao Act! This incredible show of support brings us closer to securing a future where burros are safe from exploitation. Will you take your support one step further and donate to ensure we can continue our lifesaving work?

Fuel our Work for Wild Burros

This Burro Awareness Month, we spent time educating the public about wild burros and their benefit to the ecosystems they inhabit. Research shows, that they dig for water and they create water holes that benefit other wildlife, particularly in arid environments. Their presence is crucial for maintaining the balance and health of their habitats and sustaining hundreds of plant and animal species.

Despite these benefits, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) continues to regard wild burros as invasive pests, leading to mass roundups that fracture fragile populations, harm individuals, and shatter their social bonds. In the coming months, the BLM plans to chase over 1,100 wild burros with helicopters, permanently removing them from their families and homes. We need your help documenting these roundups to continue to educate Congress and the public about this mistreatment of federally protected animals. To mark the end of Burro Awareness Month, will you help ensure we have the funds to document the upcoming roundups?

Every dollar you give helps us to advocate for stronger protective laws, conduct field research, document the lives of wild burros, and educate the public about the importance of burros in our ecosystems. Can you chip in and support the movement?

With gratitude,

Team AWHC

Join our Day of Action and stand up for wild burros this World Donkey Day! >>

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

Today is World Donkey Day!!

World Donkey Day is dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation for donkeys – including our beloved wild burros. To commemorate this day, American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC) is leading a Day of Action to protect both wild burros and domestic donkeys across the globe!

TAKE ACTION FOR DONKEYS AND BURROS! >>

Like wild horses, burros are faced with significant threats to their freedom and safety as a result of misguided federal policy that prioritizes cruel roundups instead of humane in-the-wild management. This summer alone, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning to round up over 1,600 wild burros from their natural habitats. The majority of these roundups will be done with helicopters. 

Unlike wild horses, who generally panic and stay together during roundups and follow their herd to the trap site, wild burros are stoic animals who often stand their ground in the face of the helicopters or scatter in an attempt to avoid capture. As a result, roundups can be even more traumatic for burros.

To make matters worse, the captured animals will then be funneled into an overburdened holding system, where 64,000 wild horses and burros already languish. Then, they are at risk of entering the slaughter pipeline thanks to the BLM’s disastrous Adoption Incentive Program (AIP), which was exposed by the New York Times as a pipeline to slaughter for “truckloads” of animals.

Donkeys and burros are especially at risk of slaughter in foreign slaughter plants due to the global demand for ejiao – a gelatin made from boiling donkey skins. Experts estimate that the global demand for donkey skins is approximately 4.8 million hides per year. As a result, the donkey skin trade is decimating global donkey populations. Luckily, countries across the world are starting to take action. Just this year, 54 African countries joined together to ban the ejiao trade.

The United States is the third largest importer of ejiao and is fueling this cruel trade. But, the good news is that Congress is taking notice. 

Representative Don Beyer (D-VA) recently reintroduced the ​​Ejiao Act (H.R. 6021), aimed at ending the United States’ involvement in this trade. This legislation would prohibit the transportation, sale, and purchase of donkeys or donkey hides for the purpose of producing ejiao and prohibit the transportation, sale, and purchase of products containing ejiao.

In honor of World Donkey Day, please join our Day of Action for donkeys and burros across the globe by asking your representative in Congress to cosponsor H.R. 6021 so we can finally ban the sale and transportation of ejiao in the United States. Then voice your support for these incredible animals on social media with the hashtags #KeepWildBurrosWild and #SaveOurBurros!

TAKE ACTION NOW

Thank you!

Team AWHC

World Donkey Day: A Personal Story

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

My name is Nicole Hayes and I’m AWHC’s Conservation Scientist! I’m reaching out today because tomorrow is World Donkey Day! This is an important day for me and every member of my team at American Wild Horse Conservation because it falls in May, or Burro Awareness Month! This is a month-long celebration of the unique lives and benefits of our wild burros!

TAKE ACTION FOR DONKEYS AND BURROS! >>

In the spirit of World Donkey Day, I want to share a personal story about the burros who inhabit some of the wildest corners of the American West.

Dusk was settling in the Big Smoky Valley in Nevada. I was road-tripping with AWHC state director Tracy Wilson last year, and we took an unplanned detour to some well-known hot springs just before sunset. To our surprise, we started to notice wild burros coming into the water around all us. To respect their space, we moved to our vehicle and watched for over an hour as 30 to 40 wild burros descended on the springs for a drink of water before nightfall. It was my second encounter ever with wild burros and my first time seeing so many!

That afternoon was one of the most memorable experiences of my conservation career — and an important reminder that wild burro conservation is crucial.

DONATE NOW TO DONKEYS AND BURROS! >>

Burros serve as remarkable ecosystem engineers. Research shows that wild burros actually boost water availability in deserts across the American West. Wells dug by burros in the Sonoran and Mojave deserts serve as a water source for more than five dozen native species. In fact, sometimes burro wells are their only water source.

This Burro Awareness Month, join us in taking action to protect the donkeys of the American West against mass roundups and removals by the Bureau of Land Management. Then, voice your support for these precious animals on social media with the hashtags #KeepWildBurrosWild and #SaveOurBurros!

DONATE NOW

Thank you! Together we can make a difference for America’s wild herds.

Nicole Hayes
Conservation Scientist
American Wild Horse Conservation