Millions of working donkeys in South Asia carry brick, sand, and stone on construction sites under conditions that cause preventable injury and disease treatable with basic veterinary intervention.
Working donkeys at brick kilns in Pakistan, India, and Nepal experience some of the most challenging welfare conditions for working equids globally. Loads of construction materials exceed safe weight limits, pack saddles are not fitted to individual animals, and veterinary care is essentially absent. Donkeys with open pack saddle wounds continue working as owners have no awareness that treatment is possible or beneficial. Community animal health worker programs that train local people in basic wound care and condition assessment have proven transformative in reaching animals that formal veterinary services never reach.