Amazon has a donkey meat problem

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When Cindy first tried the Artemisia Anti-Hemorrhage Formula dietary supplements she bought on Amazon, she had no reason to suspect she was eating donkey. A California native and lifelong vegetarian, she assumed the world's largest online retailer had verified the bottle's claims that it was made from '100% pure and natural herbs'. But reading the back of the bottle, she noticed an ingredient she had never seen before: "gelatina nigra". She Googled it, and what she found made her stomach turn.

Every year, millions of donkeys are slaughtered and skinned to make the so-called gelatina nigra found in Cindy's food supplement. More commonly known as 'ejiao' or 'donkey skin gelatin', the animal product is made from donkey skin. It is in such demand because of its alleged health benefits that it is decimating the world's donkey population and has led to increasingly brutal treatment of animals, according to a 2019 report by Donkey Sanctuary, an advocacy organization. Rights. A video obtained by the organization shows workers in Tanzania bludgeoning donkeys with hammers to meet their slaughter quotas. "It's not plant-based. It's literally made with donkeys," says Cindy, who asked to use only her first name for privacy reasons. so cruel?"

While some retailers like Walmart and eBay have pledged to discontinue products containing ejiao, edible items containing the ingredient are widely available on Amazon despite multiple petitions asking it to stop selling them. A legal complaint filed in California last week by law firm Evans & Page on behalf of the nonprofit Center for Contemporary Equine Studies claims that Amazon's continued sale of these donkey products is more than unpleasant, it may be illegal.

The Center alleges that Amazon's distribution and sale of ejiao violates an arcane California animal welfare law called the Horse Slaughter and Sale of Horse Meat Prohibition Act for human consumption. The 1998 ballot initiative, known at the time of its passage as Proposition Six, made the sale of horse meat for human consumption a crime on the grounds that horses, like dogs and cats, are not not food animals and deserve similar protections. The Center argues that, under the law, horse meat is defined as any part of any equine, including donkeys.

For Frank Rothschild, director of the Center for Contemporary Equine Studies, the law is clear: donkeys are equines, and the sale of ejiao for human consumption in California is illegal. “We are a scientific organization and not a national advocacy activity. We want the defendants to stop selling ejiao because it is illegal,” he says. "It's the law."

Bruce Wagman, an attorney unaffiliated with the complaint who has practiced animal rights in California for 30 years, says that while the center makes a reasonable argument, it's unclear if a judge would agree because the wording of the law leaves room for interpretation. “Horse meat is not really defined in the text of the relevant law,” he says. "But the spirit of Proposition Six is ​​absolutely to prevent equines, including donkeys, from being slaughtered for people to eat. Period."

The complaint demands that Amazon immediately stop selling ejiao. If a judge ultimately finds Amazon broke the law, the state of California could fine Amazon for each sale. This type of regulatory pressure is not unprecedented. In 2018, prosecutors in three California counties charged Amazon with violating a 2004 law banning the sale of foie gras. As part of a settlement, Amazon agreed not to sell goose foie gras in California and paid $100,000 in civil penalties.

To test the center's claims, WIRED retrieved over 1,000 Amazon product search results using terms such as "ejiao", "donkey hide", and "ass hide", and found a...