Millions of horses, donkeys, and mules in developing countries provide essential livelihoods but face welfare challenges from overwork, poor nutrition, and inadequate veterinary care.
Working equid welfare in developing countries requires contextual understanding: owners who drive horses to collapse are not cruel but desperate — the horse is their livelihood and losing it means poverty. Welfare improvement programmes that address owner livelihoods alongside animal welfare, provide basic veterinary training to communities, and work within local cultural contexts achieve sustainable welfare improvement. Approaches that focus only on animal welfare without addressing human poverty and livelihoods create resentment and fail.