Background: Factors affecting working equid welfare are wide‐ranging and reflect cultural, economic and climatic conditions, the type of work equids are used for, and individual differences in the practices of their handlers. In Mexico working equids are widely used for facilitating agricultural activities, however, welfare issues are common.Objectives: To assess working equids across three communities in Mexico, identify predominant welfare problems and document how these problems vary across locations, associated working roles and species type.Study design: Cross‐sectional survey.Methods: The study combined the administration of a wide‐ranging questionnaire to equid handlers/owners and a welfare assessment of their animal. 120 equid owners were asked about their equid management practices, the working conditions and health status of their animal. The welfare of their equids (56 donkeys, 7 mules, 57 horses) was assessed by evaluating body condition, signs of illness or injury and behavioural indicators.Results: Welfare varied by species, working role, sex and location. The poorest welfare was seen in one of the two arid regions (the third location having a tropical climate). Donkeys had poorer welfare than horses, and equids used for packing had poorer welfare than those used for riding and agroforestry. Overall poor body condition and wounds were the most common problems seen.Main limitations: Work type, species type and location strongly co‐varied, thus the impact of each factor could not be assessed in isolation. The sample size was relatively small.Conclusions: Results showed significant regional variations in welfare, suggesting that environmental and/or cultural variations are producing a major effect on welfare.

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.

NGOs utilise a range of programming to bring about desired changes. This study examines the advantages and limitations of the range of approaches used by one particular NGO sector: working equid welfare organisations, from the perspective of NGO staff. NGO staff hold a wealth of knowledge regarding the design and implementation of welfare improvement initiatives; however this knowledge is rarely systematically documented. Through 32 semi-structured interviews the experiences of staff across multiple organisations were explored. The nine most commonly utilised approaches within equid focussed NGO programming were discussed with participants. Many themes resulting from the interviews centred around the strengths and disadvantages of these individual approaches, implemented both historically and presently by different NGOs. The influences of the context in which initiatives took place and barriers to welfare improvement that existed across approaches were also examined. Striking a balance came through as a strong theme at many levels. Balancing top-down versus bottom-up approaches was a frequently voiced concern, as was balancing the utility of certain approaches against associated factors warranting caution. Combinations of approaches that were felt to be complementary provided a balance that drew on the strengths and mitigated for the weaknesses of different approaches. The need to tailor approaches to individual contexts was also raised and is especially relevant to INGOs working across multiple countries, cultures and political structures. The study provides an informed insight into potential factors to consider when designing future welfare initiatives. The collaborative pooling of experience across different NGOs could help make welfare initiatives more effective and provide a framework for NGOs in other fields to learn from each other’s collective knowledge.

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 sustainability of NGO initiatives has become a criterion by which to judge the success of programming. This study explores the conditions needed in order to achieve sustainable change by focusing on a sector that has recently experienced this shift towards more sustainable, interdisciplinary programming: that of working equid (animal welfare) NGOs. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 32 NGO staff working for 8 different animal welfare NGOs across 13 countries were conducted. These interviews covered potential barriers and avenues to success in producing sustainable working animal welfare improvements. Thematic analysis revealed consistent themes across contexts and NGOs. Approaches perceived as creating sustainable outcomes were ones that tailored initiatives to local contexts, focused on changing human behaviour, worked with key community contacts, built capacity in local infrastructure, combined approaches, and had comprehensive exit strategies. Barriers to sustainability included lack of continuity, short funding cycles and unpredictable external factors. Consideration of these conditions for designing effective future initiatives is recommended across the wider not-for-profit sector.

In areas where waste management is inadequate, the welfare of free-roaming animals can be significantly affected by the ingestion of plastic waste, potentially impacting human livelihoods and health. However, the effect of plastic pollution on terrestrial animals is poorly understood. Using a combination of methodologies from animal behaviour, environmental and social sciences, this study assesses the effects of plastic pollution on donkeys, cattle and their owners in Kenya. Behavioural observations suggested that donkeys and cattle preferentially fed at waste sites, where 1 in every 10–20 items ingested were plastic. Faecal sampling also showed much higher concentrations of microplastics than those reported in previous studies of farmed cattle and significantly higher concentrations in the faeces of donkeys and cattle grazing at waste sites compared to rural areas. Survey data showed that the majority of livestock owners believed that plastic pollution was a problem, and nearly a third of local residents had witnessed an animal becoming ill following plastic ingestion, reporting mortality rates of 78%. Triangulating data from multiple methods highlights the risks terrestrial plastic pollution poses to domestic animals, demonstrating the need for interdisciplinary projects that tackle this important issue by addressing the interconnectedness of human behaviour, animal welfare and environmental health.