Research impact

Our success stories

Reference intervals (biochemistry and haematology) 

Our pathology laboratory carried out an in- depth review of the biochemistry and haematology reference ranges used to help diagnose disease in donkeys. Following the review process, we adjusted some of the ranges to change what would be considered normal or abnormal. 

Perhaps the most notable change was to the upper limit of normal for serum triglyceride measurements which are used to identify the presence of hyperlipaemia. This lowering of the upper limit of normal will help us to correctly identify more hyperlipaemic donkeys in the early stages of the disease and instigate treatment protocols earlier. 

Our new amended reference intervals are not only helping our vets to more effectively diagnose and treat sick donkeys in our care, but have been public for use by any vets who care for donkeys throughout the UK and further afield. The results of this project are only appropriate for non-working, mature animals kept in temperate climates due to environmental, diet or workload influences. 

Sentience 

Human appreciation of animal sentience (that animals can think, feel and reason) is finally becoming an accepted perspective. The attribution of emotions is influenced by individual, social and cultural factors, and the greater the belief in sentience, the greater the increase in moral concern for the animal. Belief in animal sentience is linked to a recognition that an animal can feel pain; the ability to recognise pain plays an important role in assessment and treatment of the cause and symptoms of that pain. All domesticated animals (and some wild ones) are dependent on humans for their care, the quality of these relationships and the degree of acceptance of animal sentience have a significant influence on welfare. 

A groundbreaking study explored the potential links between owner attitude, beliefs in animal sentience, and working equid welfare across four continents – in the countries of Egypt, Mexico, Pakistan, Senegal, Spain/ Portugal. Using the Equid Assessment and Research Scoping (EARS) protocol alongside a questionnaire the researchers explored owner attitudes in relation to their working equid’s welfare. Overall, the health and wellbeing of working equids were found to be better in equids working with owners who had an appreciation of their equid’s personhood (appreciating their emotions, feelings, and the animal as an individual).

The results of the study showed the importance of the owner-equid relationship and its influence on equid welfare, and differences in culture and social norms have impacts on people’s attitudes to animal welfare and initiatives to improve it. 

Donkeys need shelter 

We have always adhered to the old saying ‘donkeys need shelter’ - and now we have the research to add credence to this statement. We have found out that given free choice, donkeys will seek shelter comparatively more than horses in almost all circumstances. This is particularly evident when donkeys are faced with wind (even a light breeze), rain or temperatures below 14 degrees. 

Working with researchers from the University of Portsmouth and Canterbury Christ Church University, we weren’t expecting to find that horses seem to seek shelter in the opposite weather conditions, with higher temperatures and stronger sunshine more likely to send them inside. It was only a combination of rain and wind together which drove both species inside. 

This project was a great piece of work to highlight yet another crucial difference between horses and donkeys. We now know, without a shadow of doubt, that donkeys cannot be left without access to shelter in inclement weather, as we would be denying what is a clear preference to get out of the wind or rain. 

Having an evidence base to support our advice is hugely beneficial when advocating for the welfare needs of donkeys. Whether we are giving advice to a donkey owner, offering guidance to local authorities on essential conditions for working donkeys, or, providing evidence for welfare investigation cases - having reliable research can bring about real and meaningful change for donkeys.  

An example of this, is the inclusion of the need for shelter for donkeys in the DEFRA Code of Practice which offers practical guidance to help those responsible for caring for donkeys ensure they comply with the Animal Welfare Act 2006. (England) 

The donkey skin trade

Several years ago, reports surfaced of donkeys disappearing from African towns and villages. In 2014, in response to these disappearances The Donkey Sanctuary began to investigate the cause, which lead to the inception of its largest campaign to date: the Donkey Skin Trade Campaign. 

 This Campaign aimed to tackle the root cause of the donkey skin trade, which posed a significant global risk to donkey welfare. Through interventions, partnerships, research and advocacy, we pursued a multifaceted approach to understand, evidence and ultimately to try to end this practice. 

Investigative research was undertaken to gain better understanding of the scale and impact of the trade, this resulted in our first Under the Skin report in 2017.  This report helped us to share what we had learnt regarding the far reaching and devastating impacts on affected donkey populations, and their owners, around the world. 

Since the Donkey Skin campaign’s initiation, we have published four articles in peer reviewed journals, presented at three scientific conferences and provided evidence to support advocacy and campaigns. Read and download our publications here.

The research we undertook into the donkey skin trade allowed us to identify risk factors and patterns such as: 

impact on donkey populations and which countries and communities were particularly at threat 
impact on feral donkeys 
a breakdown of what were the biggest risks to donkey welfare along the trade chain 
increase in intensive donkey farming 
environmental impact 
biosecurity risks and risks associated with human consumption 
links with illegal wildlife trade and organised crime.

Once these themes were identified as areas of concern we began to tackle the trade with a multi-faceted strategic approach. Implementing measures to protect donkeys at risk, undertaking research to gather evidence, advocating for policy reform, and engaging directly with the stakeholders in the ejiao industry.

Find out more about our Stop the Slaughter campaign work related to the illegal trade in donkey skins.

Working equids and harness design

A high prevalence of skin injuries is reported amongst working equids globally, directly linked with poorly designed, ill-fitting harness, but also adaptation of equipment primarily designed for other species, causing inefficient transfer of power and serious health and welfare issues.  

Our own in-house experts here at The Donkey Sanctuary have been collaborating with different partners including experts in animal traction and universities from different countries, amongst others, to conduct several research projects in this field. Thereby developing a series of scientifically robust results, including papers and a thesis focused on collar design for donkeys, impact of logging techniques and the use of dynamometer to monitor force exerted. Scientific findings were then converted into simple and clear educational resources to share this knowledge with those who will benefit the most: donkey owners and users around the world.  

Additional work is underway looking at cart design which will expand our knowledge base further and have practical applications across many countries where donkeys and their hybrids are used as traction animals.  

Read more on our published research on working equids and harness design:

Evidence from our research has also helped to support advocacy guidance for Working Equids in the EU and their welfare through legislative proposals.

Welfare assessment tools 

Following the identification of a need for concise welfare assessment protocols and tools, the team at The Donkey Sanctuary developed the Equid Assessment, Research and Scoping tool, known to us as EARS. EARS has been designed as a simple tool, which can be used in multiple contexts, to give an objective assessment of the current welfare status of any equid be their environment one of a working, production, sanctuary or feral animal.  

EARS can also be used to assess the health and welfare of a group of animals by scoring multiple equids at the same point in time, or it can be repeated over a period of time to monitor changes in welfare status.   

Since the development of the EARS tool, we have used it on our sanctuary sites as part of our own assessment and monitoring programmes. The results of which have informed us, giving insights into where we may need to make adjustment to our donkey management. The EARS tool has been used in a number of research projects conducted by The Donkey Sanctuary to assess the welfare of equids from working equids in rural communities in Portugal and Spain, to Nepal and India (can we expand on this application and impact).  

Following on from the development of EARS, we identified a need for a further tool to aggregate welfare assessment results and provide an overall picture of welfare. The Welfare Aggregation and Guidance (WAG) tool was developed to provide a single score for each of the five domains (i.e. nutrition, environment, health, behaviour, and mental state) which can then be compared between equids, communities, or through time. The WAG tool can be used to spotlight equids in greatest need and can streamline decision making when allocating resources.

Find out more on the research projects which developed EARS and WAG, as well as subsequent projects which utilised them: 

Valuing donkeys

Collaborative, community embedded projects borne out of the need to evidence and celebrate the importance and value of donkeys in communities throughout the world. 

These projects main aims are:

To explore the roles, values and contributions of donkeys in different contexts, to build their visibility and profile globally.  
To explore how donkeys, particularly those in good states of welfare, contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 
To investigate relationships between donkey welfare and indicators of human development and well-being within a ‘One Welfare’ framework 
To understand motivations for maintaining and sustaining higher levels of donkey welfare - whether this is done autonomously, for cultural reasons, for economic reasons or because of support from welfare organisations  
To understand different perceptions of donkeys among both donkey owning and non-donkey owning households

The key themes of these projects include donkeys and natural hazards (droughts, earthquakes, floods), donkeys and gender, education and livelihoods , donkeys and displacement (migration, fleeing conflict, refugee camps), donkeys and industry, perceptions and value of feral donkeys  and  donkeys and cultural/ traditional practices .

Evidence from these projects has supported advocacy guidance for working donkeys and donkeys which support livelihoods at the UNFCCC COP 26, World Water Week events in both 2021 and 2022 and with UN stakeholders.

Read some of our publications which focus on the theme of valuing donkeys and demonstrate the breadth and scope of our work: