Donkeys are not small horses — they have distinct behavioral, physiological, and welfare needs that require specialized understanding and care approaches.
Donkey welfare suffers from systematic misunderstanding driven by treating donkeys as small horses. Their extreme stoicism means that a donkey showing obvious signs of pain is typically in very severe pain — early signs are subtle and easily missed by owners accustomed to horse-level expressiveness. Their metabolic adaptation to sparse arid environments makes them highly susceptible to obesity on horse feeds and pasture — and obese donkeys face catastrophic hyperlipemia during any stress event that reduces feed intake. Working donkey welfare globally represents one of the largest underrecognized animal welfare problems: hundreds of millions of heavily used working donkeys in developing countries receive minimal veterinary care, have heavy workloads, and lack basic welfare protections.