Working animals including horses, donkeys, mules, and cattle are critical to the economies of millions of the poorest families globally, and their welfare is inseparable from human wellbeing.
Working animal welfare is a development issue as much as an animal protection issue. A donkey in rural Ethiopia or a draught ox in South Asia is not merely an animal — it is a family member, a livelihood, and often the difference between food security and hunger. Welfare improvements that increase working animal health and productivity directly benefit the poorest families. This convergence of animal welfare and poverty reduction makes working animal welfare one of the most compelling cases for integrated animal-human wellbeing approaches in development policy.