equid welfare

Working equids play a central role in mountainous communities, but their work often goes unnoticed by the wider world, with sparse documentation of their role, value, or welfare – a state which often extends to their human counterparts. Communities living in the remote Manaslu Valley, Nepal, face a number of uncertainties, including extreme weather events due to the seasonal monsoon and, more recently, the construction of a new road network. Using semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and Equine Assessment Research and Scoping (EARS) welfare assessments, we outline the specific role of pack mules in supporting the lives of local people, explain the nuanced links between human experience and mule welfare, and gain insight into how people living in this volatile environment manage uncertainty and risk. Mule work was felt to be the ‘only option’ for a sustainable livelihood for most mule owners although, in some cases, mules had enabled respondents to diversify their income. Mule owners with more husbandry experience did not own mules in more positive behavioural states, which may suggest a lack of generational knowledge and support networks. Short-term ongoing risks, such as the monsoon or unstable tracks, had a larger impact both financially and emotionally than the long-term but distant implications of the road construction. Mule owners must constantly balance the risk of working during the monsoon season, when conditions are treacherous but pay was higher, with losing valuable income but keeping themselves and their mules safe; they do, however, have a more mobile option for employment than non-owners. Mules enable a level of resilience and agility for communities living with constant uncertainty and change, which is only beginning to be recognised formally within the sustainable development sphere. Integration of animal welfare into the SDGs would allow humanitarian aid initiatives to strengthen support networks around working equids, which would greatly benefit the mules and humans alike.

Working equid populations are mainly present in low to middle-income countries, their work directly contributing to the lives of people reliant on their presence. Although assistance from working equids is important to support people and their communities in these regions, their welfare is often poor. This study aims to provide insight into the welfare status of mules distributing supplies in the Gorkha region of Nepal; a population of working equids which has been largely overlooked and under recorded. The welfare of mules was assessed via the Equid Assessment Research and Scoping (EARS) tool using a trained assessor; livelihood surveys gathered basic demographic and ownership information; and semi-structured interviews gained the perspectives of 26 key informants. Mule body condition was found to be ideal in many cases, but their management was in the majority of cases inappropriate; characterised by integumentary trauma from equipment use and inhumane handling, unsuitable dietary provision, and insufficient access to water. This difficult situation was compounded by inadequate access to suitably qualified, experienced veterinary professionals able to offer appropriate levels of support. Organisations aiming to improve welfare in these remote locations need a multifaceted approach where owners are facilitated and empowered to improve the welfare of their own equids; in addition, industry professionals are encouraged to improve training and provision within veterinary services

Equids in general experience transient lives where ownership may change multiple times, for working equids this can be more extreme where ownership changes are not only numerous but abrupt, and situations encountered prove difficult, diverse and tough for equids to adapt. In this study, we investigate the life cycle of pack mules in Nepal, investigating the challenges they face during their lives through to end of life. To gain insight into the lives of mules, we conducted semi-structured interviews and livelihood surveys with 27 key informants, gathering the perspectives of the people working with mules. Welfare assessments of the mules were undertaken via the Equid Assessment Research and Scoping tool (EARS) by a trained assessor. Mules had to adapt swiftly to changes in industry type, enduring long distance transportation in overloaded vehicles and across country borders with no checks for biosecurity or welfare. Mules had to show swift adaptation to their new environment, to respond to and learn new tasks via inhumanely administered training, using inappropriate techniques, delivered by owners lacking in understanding of mule behaviour and learning. Environmental conditions were often hard; the negotiation of difficult terrain and challenging weather conditions during monsoon and subsequent high-altitude working without acclimatisation likely pushed mules to their biological limits. This study investigates the lives of a population of mules in the mountains of Nepal, developing a better understanding of their needs and their ‘truth’ or ‘telos’ informing what measures will help them to thrive.

Working equids play an essential role in supporting livelihoods, providing resilience and income security to people around the world, yet their welfare is often poor. Consequently, animal welfare focussed NGOs employ a range of initiatives aimed at improving standards of working equid welfare. However, there is debate surrounding the efficacy of welfare initiatives utilised and long term monitoring and evaluation of initiatives is rarely undertaken. This study compares equid welfare and the social transmission of welfare information across Mexican communities that had previously received differing intervention histories (veterinary treatment plus educational initiatives, veterinary treatment only and control communities) in order to assess their efficacy. Indicators of equid welfare were assessed using the Equid Assessment Research and Scoping tool and included body condition score, skin alterations, lameness, general health status and reaction to observer approach. Owners were interviewed about their involvement in previous welfare initiatives, beliefs regarding equid emotions and pain, and the social transmission of welfare knowledge, including whether they ask advice about their equid or discuss its health with others and whether there is a specific individual that they consider to be ‘good with equids’ in their community. In total 266 owners were interviewed from 25 communities across three states. Better welfare (specifically body condition and skin alteration scores) was seen in communities where a history of combined free veterinary treatment and educational initiatives had taken place compared to those that had only received veterinary treatment or control communities. The social transfer of welfare knowledge was also higher in these communities, suggesting that the discussion and transfer of equid welfare advice within communities can act as a mechanism to disseminate good welfare practices more widely. Our results suggest that using a combined approach may enhance the success of welfare initiatives, a finding that may impact future NGO programming.

The assessment of animal welfare poses numerous challenges, yet an emerging approach is the consolidation of existing knowledge into new frameworks which can offer standardised approaches to welfare assessment across a variety of contexts. Multiple tools exist for measuring the welfare of equids, but such tools have typically been developed for specific contexts. There is no ‘one size fits all’ which means that resulting datasets are generally non-comparable, creating a barrier to knowledge-sharing and collaboration between the many organisations working to improve equid welfare around the globe. To address this, we developed the Equid Assessment, Research and Scoping (EARS) tool, which incorporates pre-existing validated welfare assessment methods alongside new welfare indicators to deliver a larger and more comprehensive series of welfare indicators than currently exists, creating a single resource that can be used to assess equid welfare in any context. We field-trialled three welfare assessment protocols within the EARS tool, and applied these to welfare assessment of equids in a variety of contexts across nineteen countries. The EARS tool proved a useful, versatile and rapid method for collecting welfare assessment data and we collected 7464 welfare assessments in a period of fifteen months. We evaluate the EARS tool and provide ideas for future development.

Recently, the need for a more holistic approach to welfare assessment has been highlighted. This is particularly pertinent in the case of working equids who provide vital support for human livelihoods, often in low- to middle-income countries, yet suffer from globally low standards of welfare. This study aimed to provide insight into the welfare status and traditional use of working equids in rural Western European communities using the new EARS welfare tool, designed to provide a broad view of the welfare of working equids and the context in which they are found. Other questions on the topics of equid management practices, social transmission of expertise, environmental stressors, and traditions, alongside physical and behavioural welfare assessments were also included to explore the impact of these wide-ranging factors on an understudied population of working equids. The protocol was trialled on 60 working equid owners from communities in Portugal and Spain where, despite the decline in traditional agricultural practices and livestock keeping, donkeys and mules remain working animals. Many owners stated that the help donkeys provided was invaluable, and donkeys were considered to be important for both farming and daily life. However, participants also recognised that the traditional agricultural way of life was dying out, providing insights into the traditional practices, community structure, and beliefs of equid owners. Questions investigating the social networks and social transfer of information within the villages were effective in finding local sources of equid knowledge. Overall, welfare was deemed fair, and the protocol enabled the identification of the most prevalent welfare problems within the communities studied, in this case obesity and the use of harmful practices. The findings suggest that the new protocol was feasible and detail how contextual factors may influence equid welfare. Increasing understanding of the cultural context, social structure, and attitudes within a community, alongside more traditional investigations of working practices and animal management, may, in the future, help to make equid welfare initiatives more effective.

Equids fulfil many different roles within communities. In low- to middle-income countries (LMICs), in addition to providing a source of income, equids also provide essential transport of food, water, and goods to resource-limited and/or isolated communities that might otherwise lack access. The aim of this investigation was to understand the welfare conditions that donkeys, mules, and horses are exposed to whilst working in Nepalese brick kilns. To understand the welfare conditions of equids in Nepalese brick kilns, the Welfare Aggregation and Guidance (WAG) tool in conjunction with the Equid Assessment, Research and Scoping (EARS) tool was used to understand the health, behaviour, nutrition, living and working conditions in brick kilns. Further analysis of individual EARS responses focused on key indicator questions relating to demographic information was used to investigate specific areas of welfare concern and attitudes of handlers towards their equids. Trained staff carried out welfare assessments between December 2018 and April 2019. The information gathered using the EARS tool was summarised using the WAG tool to pinpoint areas of welfare concern and suggest possible strategies to mitigate poor welfare conditions and suggest areas to improve the welfare of equids. Overall, the results indicate that to improve the welfare of equids working in Nepalese brick kilns, there should be better provision of clean water, both when working and stabled, equipment should be removed and shade provided during rest periods, with improvements made to housing to allow the equids to rest and recuperate when not working. Further work should also focus on collaborating with owners and equid handlers to improve their attitudes and practices towards their equids. Such improvements can be implemented via training of equid handlers and kiln owners whilst using the EARS and WAG tools to provide a sound basis on which to monitor the effectiveness and impact of education programs on equid welfare.