An estimated 200 million working equids worldwide face significant welfare challenges from overwork, inadequate nutrition, inappropriate harness, and lack of veterinary access in low-income country contexts.
Working equid welfare is a global welfare challenge inseparable from poverty, culture, and the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people. The welfare problems facing working horses, donkeys, and mules in low-income country contexts cannot be addressed without understanding the economic pressures that drive overwork, inadequate nutrition, and deferred veterinary treatment. Community-based interventions that improve welfare while supporting the economic productivity working animals provide for poor families are more effective than approaches that ignore livelihood realities. The systematic undervaluation of donkeys — smaller, less charismatic, and less culturally valued than horses — means donkey welfare is particularly neglected despite donkeys serving as the most important working animal for the poorest rural communities.