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Working donkey appeal · Pakistan

Help Working Donkeys

Working donkeys carry water, bricks, market goods and family livelihoods. Many suffer painful wounds, bad hooves, dental disease and exhaustion without veterinary care.

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Two donkeys carrying loaded packs along a high mountain trail

In brief

The best way to help abused or overworked donkeys abroad is to fund mobile veterinary clinics, hoof and dental care, wound treatment, humane harness support and owner education where the donkeys actually work. WARN funds partner-led donkey welfare in Pakistan, its in-network focus country.

~50M

Donkeys worldwide

~116M

Working horses, donkeys & mules

~600M

People who depend on them

Pakistan

WARN’s in-network focus

Figures: FAO/FAOSTAT and peer-reviewed research. Full citations in the Sources section below.

Why Do Working Donkeys Need Help?

For millions of families, a donkey is not a pet — it is the engine of the household. In Pakistan, WARN’s in-network focus, donkeys haul water, bricks, fodder and market goods, and work in agriculture, construction and waste collection. When the donkey is healthy, the family can earn; when it is injured or sick, that income can disappear overnight.

Yet the people who rely on donkeys are often poor themselves, with no affordable access to vets, farriers or humane harness equipment. The result is widespread, preventable suffering: open harness sores, untreated hooves, dental pain, parasites, dehydration and exhaustion. Because owner and animal share the same hardship, helping the donkey almost always helps the family too.

WARN’s role is not to run clinics itself but to fund partner-led working-equine welfare — mobile treatment, emergency care, practical equipment and owner education that reduce pain now and prevent it returning.

What Welfare Problems Do Working Donkeys Face?

Most are preventable with basic care. In peer-reviewed research on working donkeys in Pakistan, around 65% of owners reported load-related injuries, with wounds and lameness the most common (see Sources).

Harness & load wounds. Ill-fitting harnesses, ropes and overloading rub and cut, leaving painful open sores.

Lameness & hoof disease. Overgrown, cracked or untrimmed hooves and poor farriery are a leading cause of pain.

Dental pain. Sharp points and untreated teeth make eating — and working — painful and inefficient.

Dehydration & heat stress. Long hours in high temperatures with too little water and rest exhaust the animal.

Parasites & skin disease. Worms and untreated skin infections quietly drain body condition and strength.

Untreated injuries & infection. Wounds are often left without pain relief, antibiotics or basic first aid.

Overwork & poor nutrition. Too much work on too little feed shortens a donkey’s healthy working life.

How Many Working Donkeys And Equids Are There?

There are an estimated 50 million donkeys worldwide, and most of them work. Together with horses and mules, around 116 million working equids support the livelihoods of roughly 600 million people, overwhelmingly in low- and middle-income countries. Because donkeys are frequently left out of official livestock counts, the real totals may be higher.

Working donkeys and working equids at a glance, with key welfare facts
Donkeys worldwide ~50 million
Working equids (horses, donkeys & mules) ~116 million
People who depend on working equids ~600 million
Where most donkeys live ~61% Africa · ~26% Asia
Donkeys in Pakistan (WARN’s focus) ~5.9 million
Most common work Water, bricks, farm loads, market transport, waste
Top welfare problems Wounds, lameness, hoof & dental disease
WARN’s role Funds partner-led mobile vet care, farriery & owner education

Figures from FAO/FAOSTAT and peer-reviewed welfare research. See Sources below.

What Does WARN Fund For Working Donkeys?

WARN funds partner-led welfare in Pakistan — practical, field-based care delivered by local teams who know the communities and the donkeys.

Mobile vet clinics

Field treatment for wounds, infection, colic, lameness and exhaustion — taken to where the donkeys are.

Hoof & dental care

Farriery, tooth rasping and pain relief for donkeys who may never have seen a vet or farrier.

Humane harness support

Better-fitting equipment and practical guidance that prevent recurring load and harness wounds.

Emergency medicines

Antibiotics, pain relief, deworming and wound supplies for urgent and neglected cases.

Owner education

Training so families can prevent pain, spread the load and extend a donkey’s working life.

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The Donkey Skin Trade: The Wider Picture

Educational context · not a WARN partner programme

Beyond everyday welfare, working donkeys face a second threat: the global trade in their skins. The hides are processed into ejiao, a traditional remedy made from donkey-skin collagen. Soaring demand has driven a large and often illegal international trade, and donkey populations have fallen sharply in some regions as a result. Most of the world’s donkeys live in Africa, and in February 2024 the African Union agreed a continent-wide 15-year moratorium on slaughtering donkeys for their skins.

We include this so the page reflects the full picture facing donkeys worldwide — but it is wider context, not WARN’s work. WARN’s funded focus is practical, partner-led welfare for working donkeys in Pakistan.

How Your Donation Helps

Every gift funds partner-led field care for working donkeys. The maximum possible share reaches the animals that need it.

£25

Hoof & wound care

Helps fund farriery and wound treatment for donkeys who have never seen a vet.

£60

Mobile clinic visit

Helps fund a mobile veterinary visit that brings treatment to where donkeys work.

£150

Community welfare day

Helps fund a field day of veterinary care, dental work and owner education.

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Working Donkeys FAQ

Why do working donkeys need help?
Working donkeys carry water, bricks, market goods and farm loads in heat and traffic, often with little or no veterinary care. Common, preventable problems include harness and load wounds, lameness, overgrown hooves, dental pain, parasites, dehydration and exhaustion. Funding mobile veterinary care, farriery and owner education where donkeys work relieves that suffering — and protects the families who depend on them.
What welfare problems do working donkeys face?
The most common are skin wounds from ill-fitting harnesses and overloading, lameness and hoof disease from poor farriery, dental pain, internal parasites, dehydration and heat stress, and untreated injuries. In peer-reviewed research on working donkeys in Pakistan, around 65% of owners reported load-related injuries, with wounds and lameness the most frequent. Most of these problems are preventable with basic, affordable care.
How many working donkeys are there in the world?
There are an estimated 50 million donkeys worldwide, and the vast majority work in low- and middle-income countries — roughly 61% in Africa and 26% in Asia. Counted together with working horses and mules, about 116 million working equids are in service globally. Many are never recorded in official livestock data, so the true numbers may be higher.
How many people depend on working donkeys and other equids?
Around 600 million people — many in the world’s poorest communities — rely on working horses, donkeys and mules for transport, water, farming and income. For these households a healthy donkey is essential infrastructure: when it is injured or sick, the family can lose its livelihood, so helping the donkey usually helps the whole family.
Where does WARN's working-donkey work happen?
WARN’s current in-network focus for working donkeys is Pakistan, one of the world’s largest donkey-owning countries with roughly 5.9 million donkeys. Wider regions such as Africa and the rest of South Asia appear on this page as educational context, not current WARN partner-network countries. WARN funds partner-led welfare rather than running its own clinics.
Does WARN remove donkeys from their owners?
Not as the default. For most families a donkey is essential to income and transport, so the highest-impact model is to bring care to where the donkey works — mobile veterinary treatment, farriery, dental care, humane harness support and owner education. Removal is only ever a last resort in extreme cruelty or abandonment cases handled by local partners.
What is the donkey skin trade?
The donkey skin trade supplies hides for ejiao, a traditional remedy made from donkey-skin collagen. Demand has driven a large and often illegal global trade in skins, and in February 2024 the African Union agreed a continent-wide 15-year moratorium on slaughtering donkeys for their skins. It threatens both donkeys and the people who depend on them. This is wider educational context — WARN’s funded work is partner-led welfare in Pakistan, not the skin trade.
Can UK donors support donkey welfare abroad?
Yes. UK supporters can help fund partner-led donkey welfare in WARN’s network. WARN is a registered global not-for-profit animal welfare organisation rather than a registered charity, so Gift Aid (which is only available to UK registered charities) does not apply — the case for giving is transparency and low-cost, partner-led delivery where the donkeys actually work.

Sources

Figures on this page are drawn from primary, peer-reviewed and government sources.

  1. FAO / FAOSTAT — Global and country livestock data — about 50 million donkeys worldwide and roughly 5.9 million in Pakistan.
  2. Overview of Donkey Welfare and Husbandry Practices in Asia — Animals (MDPI), 2025 — Peer-reviewed: regional distribution (~61% Africa, ~26% Asia) and Pakistan welfare data, where about 65% of owners report load-related injuries.
  3. The Socioeconomic Impact of Diseases of Working Equids in Low- and Middle-Income Countries — Animals (MDPI), 2023 — Peer-reviewed: around 116 million working equids worldwide support the livelihoods of roughly 600 million people.
  4. African Union (AU-IBAR) — moratorium on the slaughter of donkeys for their skins (adopted 2024) — The African Union’s Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources led the continent-wide moratorium on killing donkeys for the skin trade.