United States HR 5203: Ejiao Act

Bill Text

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117TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 5203
To prohibit the sale or transport of ejiao made using donkey skin in interstate
or foreign commerce.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER 10, 2021
Mr. BEYER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To prohibit the sale or transport of ejiao made using donkey
skin in interstate or foreign commerce.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ejiao Act’’. 4
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 5
Congress finds the following: 6
(1) Ejiao is a gelatin created from the skins of 7
donkeys which is used in traditional Chinese medi-8
cine, beauty, cosmetic, and other luxury products. 9
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(2) The donkey skin trade for the production of 1
ejiao, is decimating global donkey populations and 2
harming impoverished global communities. 3
(3) Studies have shown that the use of ejiao is 4
unnecessary in the production of these products 5
since the gelatins from other sources, including 6
plants may be used instead. 7
(4) Millions of donkeys are slaughtered annu-8
ally for their skins to make ejiao. 9
(5) The domestic Chinese and international de-10
mand for donkey skins is approximately 8,000,000 11
to 10,000,000 skins per year but the annual supply 12
in China is less than 1,800,000. 13
(6) Such demand has led to the slaughter of 14
massive numbers of donkeys across the globe, deci-15
mating donkey populations, most notably in Africa 16
and Latin America. 17
(7) Such demand has had devastating effects on 18
the families who depend on donkeys for survival, 19
such as fetching water to drink, cook and clean, tak-20
ing products to market for sale, and transporting 21
children to school. 22
(8) A recent report by the Kenya Agricultural 23
and Livestock Research Organization said that 24
159,631 donkeys were slaughtered for their skins, 25
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8.1 percent of the population, in 2018. Today, up to 1
1,000 donkeys a day can be slaughtered in Kenya 2
alone, more than 300,000 a year. The report goes on 3
to suggest that donkeys in Kenya could vanish by 4
2023. 5
(9) Donkeys are regularly stolen and killed ille-6
gally solely for their skins. Moreover, donkeys are 7
often stolen from families who depend on them for 8
their livelihoods, and who are already struggling and 9
living below the poverty line of $2 a day. 10
(10) Where owners willingly sell their donkeys, 11
they find that within months they are worse off fi-12
nancially than they would have been had they kept 13
their donkeys. As prices constantly rise, it becomes 14
impossible for these owners to go back into the mar-15
ket for a new donkey. 16
(11) Although ejiao products are expensive, as 17
the Chinese middle class has expanded, demand for 18
ejiao products has exploded over the course of the 19
last decade. As a result, the donkey population in 20
China has collapsed by 76 percent since 1992. 21
(12) Ejiao companies have set up donkey breed-22
ing schemes in China in an attempt to breed the 23
species on a scale sufficient to meet local demand. 24
But due to the long gestation period of donkeys, and 25
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the fact that they often only give birth once a year, 1
breeders have not been able to satisfy demand from 2
within China, which is why ejiao companies have 3
turned to Africa and Latin America to satisfy de-4
mand for ejiao. 5
(13) A crisis in donkey populations has been 6
met with varied responses from affected countries. 7
Bans in the trade of donkey skins in seven African 8
countries have been poorly enforced or overturned. 9
(14) As demand for ejiao continues unabated, 10
donkey populations in lower-income countries con-11
tinue to nosedive, despite governmental efforts to 12
outlaw the trade. 13
(15) A number of other United States-based 14
companies have already pledged to remove from the 15
market all products containing ejiao. 16
(16) The leading importers in the world for 17
ejiao are China and Hong Kong. However, the 18
United States is the third largest importer of ejiao, 19
with $12,000,000 in annual imports of ejiao each 20
year. 21
SEC. 3. PROHIBITIONS. 22
Section 301 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic 23
Act (21 U.S.C. 331) is amended by adding at the end the 24
following: 25
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‘‘(fff) The knowing sale or transpor