Approximately 40 million donkeys provide essential livelihoods for over 500 million people globally. Their welfare is often severely compromised by overloading, inadequate nutrition, and lack of veterinary care.
Working donkey welfare represents a complex intersection of animal suffering and human poverty. Families who depend on donkeys for their livelihoods have strong motivation to keep their animals healthy, but lack access to veterinary care, knowledge of nutrition, and affordable harness. A lame donkey or one with harness wounds cannot work, causing direct economic harm. Welfare improvement programmes that are sensitive to this economic context — providing free or subsidised veterinary care, distributing properly fitted harness, and conducting community-based education — achieve more lasting improvement than approaches that impose welfare standards without addressing root causes. The growing donkey skin trade represents an acute additional threat requiring international regulatory response.