Ongoing

The use of equid-drawn vehicles is a common practice in many parts of the world, with vehicles usually being manufactured by local craftsmen, or by the users themselves. There is a huge variety of models, with 2-wheel carts being the most widely used as they are cheaper and easier to manufacture. 

Results obtained by TDS in recent studies which focused on both harnesses and welfare assessment of working equids, showed that poorly designed and ill-fitted harness leads to inefficient transfer of power and serious health and welfare issues. Carts may also play an important role here, as their incorrect use, often combined with poorly designed models, can be a cause or at least a predisposing factor. 

This research project intends to develop an easy to build multipurpose prototype 2-wheel cart for donkeys and hybrids, replicable anywhere in the world, using local resources. The project also includes the creation of a set of guidelines focused on good features of a cart and its correct use, including hitching techniques, pulling capacity of working equids, and good practices for the use of the cart. 

The research team involved in this project will gather a team of internal and external experts to achieve the aims described above. Following the strategy developed in the harness project, on-line resources focused on the DIY process of the prototype will be developed and will include all relevant theory and training material. 

From a strategic point of view, this project aligns closely with The Donkey Sanctuary Strategy, as it informs welfare, community, voice, and knowledge. The project will provide welfare improvements for donkeys and hybrids in a sustainable way, providing owners and users with support in providing good welfare for their donkeys and hybrids, by supporting them in cart building. The project will increase awareness of the needs of donkeys and hybrids when using carts and will involve knowledge sharing with communities and experts, using research to create learning resources and achieve positive practical outcomes for these animals.

This project explores the (often overlooked) role of donkeys and mules in sites of disaster, conflict and crisis. It offers various examples of how donkeys have supported vulnerable people in times of crisis, including war and conflict; drought and climate change; and natural disaster. Equids have a critical role to play in these contexts, to support the resilience and recovery of affected communities. However, the efforts of equids are rarely acknowledged in academic research, media reporting and international policy. This project foregrounds the role of working animals in humanitarian crises and, in doing so, expands the concept of ‘community resilience’. This is important for global development policy, resilience programming, and disaster risk reduction, including efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The project will include a desk-based review of the role of equids in sites of disaster, conflict and crisis, including how they contribute to community resilience, and a field-based investigation of the role of pack-mules in the recovery programme after the 2015 earthquake in Nepal.

The emergence of free-roaming donkey populations globally has brought novel challenges for conservationists, land managers and animal welfarists alike. Donkeys (Equus asinus) are classified as ‘alien’ in sixteen countries where they are listed as being introduced by humans (IUCN-GISD 2020), and considered ‘invasive’ in countries where they are non-native and have potential to act as a threat to native biodiversity and natural ecosystems (McNeely et al. 2001). As non-native species, free-roaming donkeys are often framed as illegitimate and ‘out of place’. In places where they are deemed too numerous, donkeys are assigned labels such as ‘pest’ or ‘vermin’, further entrenching ideas of illegitimacy (Bough 2006, 2016; Celermajer and Wallach 2019). However, there has been limited research on the interface between science, policy and management for free-roaming donkeys, including the kinds of logics and rationales that are used to either support or denounce their presence in different geographical and ecological contexts.

For thousands of years, the donkey (Equus asinus) has played an essential role in human society, underpinning the earliest forms of civilisation, facilitating critical trade networks, contributing to agricultural development, construction and mining. However, with the rise of motorised transport and agricultural machinery, the donkey was gradually turned loose in many places, and left free to roam. The emergence of free-roaming donkey populations has brought novel challenges for conservationists, land managers and animal welfarists alike. In many places they are categorised as ‘non-native’ and so framed as illegitimate and ‘out of place’.

To expand upon the work done in Protection from the Elements Part one. Part two is focussed on warmer climates and implementing changes to provide better protection from the element for working equids in such climates.

It is evident from the literature that working equines contribute much to the sustainable development goals through supporting the livelihood of poorest families worldwide. They are considered source of employment in various sectors including agriculture, construction, tourism and mining sector. However, the contribution in enhancing the livelihood of poor and welfare issues especially in the case of donkeys and mules are under-acknowledged and neglected in the policies and development programmes due to lack of information and data to support their contribution. Efforts by various animal welfare organisations to improve the welfare of working equines have not achieved significant positive changes. There is need for one welfare approach where welfare of animals and human to be considered interlinked to each other, so change in human welfare will bring positive change in animal welfare and improved animal welfare will increase the productivity and household income.

Donkeys and mules support some of the worlds poorest communities. This paper is an update to a previously published study. This investigation focuses on global, regional and country level trends in donkey a mule populations to understand how this has developed between 1997 and 2018. Results show that the general trend identified in a previous paper analysing data between 1961 and 1997 is continuing with the number of donkeys globally increasing at a rate of ~1% per annum, whilst mule population are in decline at a rate of ~2% per annum. Results also suggest that the trend identified in the original paper are still evident today with the largest increases in donkey population seen in the sub-Saharan African region and greatest reduction noted in Eastern Europe with these two regions having different socio-economic drivers. This study highlights that multifaceted socio-economic drivers influence changes in donkey and mule populations demonstrating the complexity of designing targeted one-welfare approaches.

Continuation of previous Protection from the Elements project, to extend work to cover arid and tropical climates.