Why is China buying up the global supply of donkeys? (CNN) {traditional Chinese "medical" bullshit}
By Kieron Monks, for CNN
Updated 5:45 PM ET, Thu September 29, 2016
(CNN) Gelatin produced from donkey hide is a key ingredient of one of China's favorite traditional remedies, known as ejiao, which is used to treat a range of ailments from colds to insomnia.
But as the rising power shifts towards advanced industry and away from traditional agriculture, donkeys are in decline. State statistics show the population has fallen from 11 million to six million over the last 20 years.
China is now increasingly looking to Africa to boost its stocks, and imports donkeys from countries across the continent. But flourishing trade has hit several roadblocks.
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Beyond the severe damage to donkey populations, the new industry caused environmental and economic problems.
The spread of abattoirs generated a backlash. In the Burkinabe village of Balole, local farmers reportedly attacked and closed a slaughterhouse in protest at blood and offal leaking into their water supplies.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/29/africa/china-african-donkeys/index.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
the largest populations in the world,at least i thought
From Elephants’ Mouths, an Illicit Trail to China
PUZHAI, China — Chinese investors have anointed it “white gold.” Carvers and collectors prefer the term “organic gemstone.” Smugglers, however, use a gruesomely straightforward name for the recently harvested African elephant tusks that find their way to this remote trading outpost on the Vietnamese border.
“We call them bloody teeth,” said Xing, a furniture maker and ivory trafficker who is part of a shadowy trade that has revived calls for a total international ban on ivory sales.
To the outrage of conservation groups trying to stop the slaughter of African elephants and the embarrassment of Chinese law enforcement agencies, Xing’s thriving ivory business is just one drop in a trail of blood that stretches from Africa, by air, sea and highway, to Chinese showrooms and private collections.
more-
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/02/world/asia/an-illicit-trail-of-african-ivory-to-china.html?_r=0
I get it that people have old pianos with ivory keys and such.
While unfortunate, I can't blame them for it.
My grandmother's piano, which she inherited from her mother, has ivory keys, after all.
But new ivory?!?!?