While the tagline of The Backyard Horse Blog is “All About Keeping Horses At Home,” I do in fact digress from that motto on occasion.
Today’s post is a case in point. I leave my backyard and look to other parts of the world. It is good to peer outside one’s own fence line sometimes.
Last Summer, I wrote about the UK-based organization Brooke as well as BrookeUSA. They provide support and education to working horses, mules and donkeys the world over.
I also shared about a trip I took with my grandmother to Egypt many years ago. We saw lots of working horses and donkeys like the one I photographed above. If you missed it, you can read the blog post at
Equine Non-Profit Spotlight: The Brooke and BrookeUSA
Due to that brief but profound travel experience, I periodically donate to BrookeUSA and am on their contact list. I recently received a flyer and letter in the mail from them about ongoing horse fairs in India during the month of September.
Being in the US, I usually think of horse fairs as educational setups with clinicians, tack shopping and demonstrations. These fairs in India are apparently very different. They are designed for the buying and selling of large number of working animals.
Working animals and their people are packed into one hot, crowded, loud location as folks interact and animals change hands. People who have attended these fairs report them as being stressful and dangerous due to the conditions, with many animals arriving to the fair already in poor condition.
Brooke reports that these fairs are also an excellent vector for communicable diseases thus adding to the stress and misery for the animals and their people.
Brooke wants to improve welfare conditions at the fairs by providing medical assistance to the animals and education for their owners on site.
I’ve made a small donation and encourage everyone else who is interested to do the same. Even tiny amounts of money when donated by many people can make a difference.
You can donate via this link at https://www.brookeusa.org/equine-fairs. Please note this link includes a hyphen between “equine” and “fairs” that does not appear in the flyer featured above (I verified the correct link with BrookeUSA via email).
And by the way, whether you donate or not, you can also help the world’s working donkeys by supporting the ban of the sale of Ejiao, a gelatin made from donkey hides that is used in beauty products.
The slaughtering of donkeys to produce this product is devastating donkey populations and the people that traditionally rely on donkeys in their everyday work.
Visit https://www.brookeusa.org/ejiao-act to learn more. And if you are in the USA, please ask your legislators to support the bill H.R. 5203 to stop the sale and import of Ejiao.
The Backyard Horse Blog 
I am a big supporter of the Brooke. I think their work is SO important. I am horrified to think that donkeys could be exterminated by 2023 in Africa . I thought they were stolen an their hides taken for some form of medicine in China. I had no idea it was for something in the USA. Every year my family and friends get Brooke gifts at Christmas. They are not too expensive and since many of my friends are horsey people they love to get the gifts of things like a water trough, or vetertinary care or forage for four working equines etc.
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Hi, Anne. I have read about the Brooke on your blog. That is a great idea to support Brooke through the gift giving idea you mentioned!
If you visit Amazon’s website (not sure if their Canadian website is significantly different from their US one?), and type in Ejaio, you will see that Amazon sells lots of Ejaio products in the US. I think many Ejaio products are imported to the US when we make purchases of some Chinese-made beauty products like the ones Amazon (and other websites) advertise. Are there products made specifically for the US beauty market with Ejaio? I don’t know. And that is part of the problem with shopping in the modern age. I often am not aware of what animals died or people suffered to produce what I am enjoying. But if the US can ban the sale of importing these products, I think it is a step in the right direction. I don’t know what percentage of difference it will make, but Amazon must make some profit of off this Ejaio trade by selling these products. I know I have signed a petition in the past regarding asking Amazon to stop selling these products, but I have not yet received an update on their response. They are definitely still selling products with Ejaio ingredients as a quick Amazon search will show. Thanks so much for your comments, Anne, and so glad you are a Brooke supporter!
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I’m not sure I can bear to do an Amazon search knowing what this product has come from. I don’t buy beauty products from Amazon but I will research mine and see if they contain it.
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Yes, seeing the products advertised is distressing. They even include references to donkey hide and donkey glue right in the titles.
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Thank you! Your blog has a much longer history with established readers than mine. The more clicks and views that a story like this can generate, the more folks can be aware of the issue and potentially choose to help support Brooke and/or BrookeUSA.
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Reblogged this on HorseAddict and commented:
I am rebloggiing this as it focuses on rhe Brooke which is my favorite organization that supports working equines.
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Poor donkeys I would be sad if the wild ones here were lost too desert burros actually help dig water wells for other wild animals
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Yes, sad all around. I have read that fact you mentioned about burro’s ability to find water in the desert. Isn’t that fascinating? It is frustrating to see the wild horses and burros removed from the range in such huge numbers this year. Thanks so much for reading and commenting!
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Great Job!
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