Donkey milk is a niche premium product with a growing market. Welfare concerns in donkey dairy farming differ from cattle and deserve specific attention.
Donkey dairy welfare centres on the foal separation question. Unlike cattle, where human breeding has made separation less immediately aversive for some cows, donkeys retain strong maternal bonds that make abrupt separation particularly distressing. The small volumes of milk produced mean commercial pressure to maximise yield from a small number of animals, intensifying management pressure. Higher-welfare operations that allow foal contact until natural weaning and use only the surplus milk represent a more ethical model but are economically challenging to scale.