Working donkeys in hot climates face extreme welfare challenges from overwork, heat stress, inadequate water, and wounds from harsh equipment, requiring sustained intervention.
Working donkey welfare in hot climates represents some of the most severe and widespread animal suffering globally, driven by a combination of poverty, knowledge gaps, and absence of regulatory protection. Donkeys that are overloaded, denied water, and worked with ill-fitting equipment causing open wounds suffer daily hardship that, because it is gradual and diffuse, generates less public attention than acute welfare emergencies. The organizations working on this problem - Brooke, The Donkey Sanctuary, SPANA, and others - demonstrate through community-based interventions that meaningful welfare improvements are achievable with modest resources and sustained engagement. Development policy integration of working animal welfare is urgently needed.