Connections to organised crime

Disrupting the transportation of donkey skins is key to combatting the exploitation of donkeys and ending the donkey skin trade.

Around the world, criminals are exploiting global transport routes, using shipments of donkey skins to conceal and traffic illegal wildlife products, arms and drugs.

As well as facilitating criminal activity, the transportation of donkey skins also has serious implications for global biosecurity and the spread of zoonotic diseases.

Disrupting the transportation of donkey skins

In partnership with the aviation and shipping sectors, we have developed Risk and Threat Operational Guidelines to help staff identify shipments of donkey skins and detect illicit cargo hidden within.

Aviation guidelines

Maritime guidelines

Criminal links to wildlife trafficking

Joint research by The Donkey Sanctuary and the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School and Wildlife Conservation Unit (WildCRU), has exposed the links between the movement of donkey skins, illegal wildlife trafficking and serious, organised crime.

The Donkey Sanctuary first saw a link between the donkey skin trade and wildlife crime in 2016 after finding online traders offering illegal wildlife products alongside donkey skins.

As demand for ejiao has rocketed, so has the global price of donkey skins. Skin traders now look for a supply of donkey skins at any cost.

The scale, severity and seriousness of the illegality is shocking.

The legality of the donkey skin trade is often ambiguous, and traders exploit this ambiguity for their benefit.

Trade and shipping channels used by skin traders are exploited by criminals engaged in wildlife, arms and drug trafficking and other illegal activities such as money laundering, passport fraud and corruption. Donkey skins and other illicit items are distributed using established shipping channels, using vague and misleading labelling to avoid detection.

These activities are often conducted in plain sight. Unregulated eCommerce websites and well-known social media platforms have been found selling donkey skins alongside illegal goods.