The welfare situation facing working equids in low and middle income countries, the organizations addressing these challenges, and the role of equine welfare in poverty alleviation.
Working equid welfare in developing countries represents one of the most significant and underaddressed welfare problems globally. Horses, donkeys, and mules provide essential transport and agricultural services to millions of the world's poorest families — their welfare is inseparable from human livelihoods in ways that create both challenges and opportunities for welfare improvement. The welfare problems are severe and pervasive: animals working long hours under heavy loads with inadequate nutrition, poorly fitted equipment causing chronic sores and lameness, and limited access to veterinary care mean that chronic pain and poor body condition are normalized across large populations. However, welfare interventions in this context are highly cost-effective: harness redesign projects, community farrier training, and mobile veterinary services generate welfare improvements that simultaneously increase working capacity, reducing poverty. The donkey skin trade represents a catastrophic welfare threat superimposed on these existing challenges — donkeys are captured, transported, and slaughtered with minimal welfare consideration to produce skin for ejiao, devastating working animal populations in already resource-poor communities.