Donkeys and mules serve as working animals for hundreds of millions of people worldwide, often in contexts where veterinary care and welfare knowledge are limited. Improving their welfare is both a development and animal welfare priority.
Working donkey and mule welfare is inseparable from the livelihoods of some of the world's poorest communities. These animals are not luxuries — they are essential infrastructure for families who depend on them for water collection, crop transport, and market access. This means welfare improvement must be integrated with livelihood support rather than treating animal welfare as a standalone concern. Donkeys are uniquely stoic: unlike horses, they tend to reduce activity rather than display obvious pain when suffering, making welfare problems easy to miss. Organizations working in this space have demonstrated that simple interventions — teaching owners to recognize lameness and harness wounds, providing basic veterinary care, and redistributing load to prevent overloading — produce significant welfare gains at low cost in high-need communities.