Ejiao Act
Bill: H.R.5203 | Sponsor: Rep. Beyer, Donald S., Jr. (D-VA)
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Ejiao Act
This bill prohibits the knowing sale or transport of ejiao (or products containing ejiao) in interstate or foreign commerce. (Ejiao is a gelatin made with donkey skin and used in traditional Chinese medicine and beauty products.)

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 Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Ejiao Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Ejiao is a gelatin created from the skins of donkeys 
        which is used in traditional Chinese medicine, beauty, 
        cosmetic, and other luxury products.
            (2) The donkey skin trade for the production of ejiao, is 
        decimating global donkey populations and harming impoverished 
        global communities.
            (3) Studies have shown that the use of ejiao is unnecessary 
        in the production of these products since the gelatins from 
        other sources, including plants may be used instead.
            (4) Millions of donkeys are slaughtered annually for their 
        skins to make ejiao.
            (5) The domestic Chinese and international demand for 
        donkey skins is approximately 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 skins per 
        year but the annual supply in China is less than 1,800,000.
            (6) Such demand has led to the slaughter of massive numbers 
        of donkeys across the globe, decimating donkey populations, 
        most notably in Africa and Latin America.
            (7) Such demand has had devastating effects on the families 
        who depend on donkeys for survival, such as fetching water to 
        drink, cook and clean, taking products to market for sale, and 
        transporting children to school.
            (8) A recent report by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock 
        Research Organization said that 159,631 donkeys were 
        slaughtered for their skins, 8.1 percent of the population, in 
        2018. Today, up to 1,000 donkeys a day can be slaughtered in 
        Kenya alone, more than 300,000 a year. The report goes on to 
        suggest that donkeys in Kenya could vanish by 2023.
            (9) Donkeys are regularly stolen and killed illegally 
        solely for their skins. Moreover, donkeys are often stolen from 
        families who depend on them for their livelihoods, and who are 
        already struggling and living below the poverty line of $2 a 
        day.
            (10) Where owners willingly sell their donkeys, they find 
        that within months they are worse off financially than they 
        would have been had they kept their donkeys. As prices 
        constantly rise, it becomes impossible for these owners to go 
        back into the market for a new donkey.
            (11) Although ejiao products are expensive, as the Chinese 
        middle class has expanded, demand for ejiao products has 
        exploded over the course of the last decade. As a result, the 
        donkey population in China has collapsed by 76 percent since 
        1992.
            (12) Ejiao companies have set up donkey breeding schemes in 
        China in an attempt to breed the species on a scale sufficient 
        to meet local demand. But due to the long gestation period of 
        donkeys, and the fact that they often only give birth once a 
        year, breeders have not been able to satisfy demand from within 
        China, which is why ejiao companies have turned to Africa and 
        Latin America to satisfy demand for ejiao.
            (13) A crisis in donkey populations has been met with 
        varied responses from affected countries. Bans in the trade of 
        donkey skins in seven African countries have been poorly 
        enforced or overturned.
            (14) As demand for ejiao continues unabated, donkey 
        populations in lower-income countries continue to nosedive, 
        despite governmental efforts to outlaw the trade.
            (15) A number of other United States-based companies have 
        already pledged to remove from the market all products 
        containing ejiao.
            (16) The leading importers in the world for ejiao are China 
        and Hong Kong. However, the United States is the third largest 
        importer of ejiao, with $12,000,000 in annual imports of ejiao 
        each year.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITIONS.

    Section 301 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 
331) is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(fff) The knowing sale or transport of ejiao made using donkey 
skin, or products containing ejiao made using donkey skin, in 
interstate or foreign commerce.''.
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