working for working animals, progress to date, current state, and potential further roadblocks.

working animals*, are largely invisible in modern animal advocacy, rendered mostly obsolete in wealthy developed nations, they fall of the horse drawn carriage and the rise of the automobile has become a classic symbol for technological progress. I have seen people ( perhaps overly) optimistic about the rise of clean meat compare the fall of the beef cow to the carriage horse. but as symbols the horses themselves have been mostly forgotten compared to lab or fur farm animals, even as similar numbers are still used for labor all around the world, and the situation continues to improve.

Before we start, I want to clarify something on the data ( from A Landscaping Analysis of Working Equid Population Numbers in LMICs, with Policy Recommendations ) we are using, and on non equine animals. compared to livestock information on working animals is scant. we only have data on equines, and not other working animals. my understanding is that the vast majority of the working animals used today are either equines or bovids (mostly zebus and swamp buffalo) with camelids making up the vast majority of the remaining share.

From the late middle ages and continuing all the way into the 20th century, their was a relatively well documented and significant decline in the use of cattle and a rise in the use of horses for labor, particularly agricultural work, in the western world. The explanations for this change given online are highly variable and multifaceted and sometimes contradictory, . suffice to say a lot changed in this time period, including breeds* of horse and cattle available, changes in crop rotation standard practices, improvements in both tack and plow technology, large scale changes in the economic system, rising wealth among rural commoners, enclosure of the commons, among others. If we assume this trend has continued, the use of working animals has declined even faster than it seems, as equines would be substituting for decreasing bovine labor. SPANA and the Working Animal Alliance both give an estimated figure of 212 million working animals, but I can’t find where they get this figure.

The number of domestic equines has risen by 6% from 1961 to 2019, from 109 to 116 million, this mild increase seems discouraging before you realize that the human population has grown drastically in this time, from 3 to 7.7 billion, over 150% ! the per capita equine population has fallen dramatically. for every equine in 1961 30 people were alive. in 2019 it was 64 ! this represents real progress even if were moving on an uphill treadmill (and when the human population peaks at the turn of the next century or so progress will speed up even more).

In this time period the number of mules actually decreased by over half! 64% meanwhile horses are essentially stable, decreasing only a slight 0.6%, the rising number of equines being entirely do to donkeys, who’s population has grown by 17.2%. in 1961, 51% of equines were horses, 37% were donkeys, and and about 12% were mules. in 2019, 50% were horses, 44% were donkeys, and about 7% were mules.

while the vast majority of donkeys and mules live in low income or middle income countries and are used as working animals, the same is not true for horses. 40% of horses live in high income countries, with the USA holding the worlds largest horse population of ,10.7 million. a 2003 study found 42% of US horses were used for recreation, 9% for racing, 29% for other competitions and shows, and 19% other. I do not mean to undermine the welfare concerns of horses used in these “modern” ways, plenty of ink has been spilled on the abuse of the racing and other horse sport industries, like dogs and cats, pet horses are frequently mistreated, and the very act of riding they are generally kept for causes musculoskeletal problems even when done the “standard” or “correct” way, but I believe they are a different issue worth distinguishing, and should be subtracted from working horses (applying US numbers to the rest of the developed world). removing a minimum of 81% of horses in rich countries leaves us with 67.6% of horses, bringing us to a current estimated population of 50.6 million donkeys, 7.9 million mules, and 38.8 million working horses, for 97.3 million working equids.

So why are is donkey power taking over? Wild horses originate in northern and central Eurasia( later expanding naturally into North and South America), while the ancestor of the donkey, the African wild ass, is native to the horn of Africa up along the red sea’s western coast and along the Barbary coast. horses do better in wetter and colder environments compared to donkeys, and donkeys do better in hotter dryer conditions. As the rest of the world develops and Africa’s population grows, a rising share of working equids live in Africa. 38.9 million, more than any other region, with nearly 4 out of five being donkeys. Burkina Faso, Chad (eighth largest equine pop), Ethiopia (second largest equine pop), Malawi, Sudan ( fourth largest equine pop) and Zimbabwe stand out as having particularly dramatic rises in their donkey populations among African countries.

while donkey populations are growing in general, a disturbing opposing trend is occurring in some countries. ejiao is gelatin derived from donkey skin, and has “uses” in Traditional Chinese Medicine. In China and other countries like India, Egypt, and Botswana, It is suspected that the rising trade of ejiao is A if not The major driver of donkey declines. Just like the dog and cat meat trade primarily consists of strays and stolen pets, donkeys are (thankfully ( they haven’t had success with it) ) not being bred for skin, but rather often stolen. It is hard to understand how this puts a wrinkle in our projections of the working equine population. with demand for working donkeys still high their numbers may grow dramatically after the ejiao trade peaks or mass breeding and farming of donkeys manages to become successful. Or maybe the ejiao trade is speeding up mechanization, by forcing people who’s donkeys are stolen to buy a new one or mechanize, or discouraging people investing in a donkey for fear of it being stolen. Another possibility is that the rise in ejiao should be looked at as a response for lowering demand/need for donkeys, as people sell of more donkeys, flooding the Chinese market with more ejiao, that then increases demand. Needless to say the continued demand for animal labor and the rise of ejiao should both be addressed as important animal welfare concerns

Current organizations focused on working animals, such as Brooke, World Horse Welfare, The donkey sanctuary, and SPANA. Providing veterinary care and instructions on “proper” care to owners in poor regions, while emphasizing the economic importance of working equids to some of the most impoverished people in the world, calling on the UN to recognize the developmental importance and put greater emphasis on their welfare, health, and productivity, and frequently referring to them as “neglected” in comparison to “production livestock”. It seems a shame that abolitionist sentiment is so missing in a field being abolished before our eyes, and likely highly tractable.

a small Indian organization I would like to highlight is Animals Rajat. Animal Rajat focused on working animals, though they also help stray dogs and wildlife. They operate three sanctuaries, provide veterinary education and care, assist local authorities in monitoring oxen and enforcing laws against use of spiked bits. They also have two mechanization programs, one focused on donkeys in brick factories, and the other for oxen pulling sugar cane cart. They educate people on the economic benefits of mechanization, assist in funding acquiring tractors* or trucks, and retiring animals at their sanctuary. Additional they are close partners with PETA India. PETA India operates a Mechanization project in Delhi for the hundreds of remaining cart horses and oxen, in partnership with the Transport department of Delhi they are subsidizing the purchase of Electronic Rickshaws for cart owners, and providing them sanctuary at Animal Rajat. I would love to see this expanded to other Indian cities, and if successful potentially try it in other middle income countries, while the use of equids in India is falling (from ~2.5 to ~0.5 million in 60 years), it has grown dramatically (from ~1 to ~6 million (7th largest )) in next door Pakistan. another middle income country Mexico, has the largest equine population and would seem to be a high priority candidate for this sort of intervention, though someone should investigate why the population has been stable since the 1970’s and the accuracy of current reporting.

I suspect the largest cost of this work is providing care for the retired animals, this could potentially be mitigated by targeting animals near the end of their productive lifespan, who are most in danger of being slaughtered, and would demand the least amount of input from rescue organizations. I haven’t seen any data on the average age of slaughter or abandonment for working animals, but I suspect it is much further in their natural lives than for dairy cattle or race horses. *

Potential barriers to continued progress….

• hilly and mountainous terrain. working animals, particularly mules donkeys and lamas, can be more practical in rough terrain in largely undeveloped areas, for now the most practical way to combat this would bet to increase development in these regions, which encourages improved infrastructure (paved roads) and concentration into urban areas. though I wonder if Robots like Boston Dynamics is using, alongside AI imaging technology, would allow large walking robots to carry goods over difficult terrain one day. The US post office still uses, mules to carry mail to and from the Havasupai tribe living at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, but I’m not sure how much this is for practical vs novelty/tradition reasons..

• Persistence of practices for religious uses, approximately 47,000 horses and mules are estimated to be owned by the Amish in the United States. The Amish population continues to grow rapidly but a declining portion of them are involved in agricultural work, so it’s difficult to project how this equine population will change.

• persistence for entertainment reasons (Developed countries). In many developed countries the use of working animals is persisting past its obsoleteness as a form of novelty. probably the most widespread form is horse carriages in major cities. These horses have severe lung damage from having their face up against car tail pipes for hours, are at risk from injury from cars and are a general safety issue themselves do to their flighty nature, and often end up slaughtered when sold off after usefulness. Thankfully their is a fair amount of advocacy against this issue, and Montreal, Oxford, Barcelona, Brussels and over a dozen US cities have banned horse carriages in response (though not yet New York despite much focus on it). Carriage horses in major cities aren’t the only instance of the phenomenon though, I’ll also like to highlight the mistreatment of mules and donkeys giving tourists rides on the Greek island of Santorini, which PETA has an ongoing campaign against.

• Persistence for entertainment reasons (developing countries). I wanted to separate this to highlight how not all “work” animals do in developing nations is necessarily legitimate or necessary. I’ll highlight another ongoing PETA campaign at a tourism hotspot this time on horses and camels ridden or pulling carriages around the Giza and Saqqara pyramids. I will also highlight, here the unusual situation of Thailand’s elephants. Following a ban on logging in Thailand in 1982 to protect forests, elephant owners have turned to the tourism industry. Today around 3,500 captive elephants live in the country, and while some of them care for the elephants well, don’t breed them, and can be considered legitimate sanctuaries, many others are abusive, using hooks to control them, giving tourists rides, chaining them when not giving rides, or breeding elephants or smuggling them from the wild and a growing portion of them are marketing themselves as “sanctuaries” as tourists become more aware of the ethical problems of managing elephants in captivity. . On the supply side I will like to highlight the Save Elephant Foundation work rescuing elephants, as well as training elephant owners in painting and jewelry as an alternative means of income and on the Demand side PETAs ongoing campaign to get Travel companies to drop elephant rides from their itineraries’(over 50 so far!).

• environmental concerns. The use of working animals is sometimes seen as a more environmental friendly alternative to vehicles. In sustainable logging practices a horse or mule creating dainty isolated footsteps can cause less damage to the forest floor and understory than large wheels rolling across the landscape, when extracting individual trees from the woods. This seems to be in practice the main “environmentalist” use of working animals, though some will argue for them as a more ecofriendly alternative to carbon polluting tractors. I suspect that when housing space/feed/ proper veterinary care is included in the calculation equines don’t look that sustainable compared to vehicles (though look back up to the first bullet points robot comment), additionally on pollution electrification of a larger portion of vehicles offer a seemingly more feasible eco friendly alternative.

Sources:

https://archiviostorico.sdfgroup.com/en/stories/horses-vs-oxen-a-comparison-of-draft-animal-power/#:~:text=The%20usage%20of%20horses%20in,horses%20for%20riding%20and%20dr

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.thebrooke.org/sites/default/files/Images/Equid_Population_Landscaping_Analysis.pdf

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.americanequestrian.com/pdf/US-Equine-Demographics.pdf

https://bitesizevegan.org/is-horse-riding-cruel-is-it-vegan/#anoteonresearchingtheskeletalmaturationgrowthplateclosureinhorsesarticleonly

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168159119301601?via%3Dihub

https://www.animalrahat.com/

https://www.petaindia.com/features/peta-indias-delhi-mechanisation-project-ends-working-animal-suffering/#:~:text=By%20being%20empowered%20to%20purchase,exams%20and%2024%2F7%20care.

https://bostondynamics.com/products/spot/

https://facts.usps.com/8-mile-mule-train-delivery/

https://charlestoncarriagehorseadvocates.com/about-us/

https://www.peta.org/features/horse-drawn-carriage-bans/

https://friendsofanimals.org/will-2023-finally-bring-an-end-to-the-nyc-carriage-horse-industry/

https://investigations.peta.org/santorini-donkey-rides/#:~:text=On%20the%20Greek%20island%20of,taxis%E2%80%9D%20at%20this%20tourist%20attraction.

https://investigations.peta.org/egypt-working-animals/

https://www.saveelephant.org/covid-19-a-jumbo-crisis/

https://scienceline.org/2022/01/adding-horsepower-back-to-sustainable-farming/#:~:text=Compared%20with%20fossil%2Dfuel%2Dpowered,because%20they%20feed%20on%20grass.

https://www.firthmapleproducts.com/sustainable-forestry/

http://www.healingharvestforestfoundation.org/restorative-forestry-and-modern-horselogging.html

*the term working animals can refer to animals trained to perform a large variety of “labor” in certain contexts, including in herding, hunting and guide dogs, carrier pigeons, and land mine smelling rats, among others, in this article I am using it more narrowly, as a more modern sounding synonym for “ beast of burden” to refer to animals used to pull or carry heavy loads of goods or for transportation, including but not limited to, horses, donkeys, mules, hinnys, cattle, buffalo, yaks, Bactrians, dromedaries, lamas, sled dogs, reindeer, and elephants, as many working equine welfare organizations do.

*I am not trying to imply that in comparison to scale working animals are neglected compared to farmed animals, just that compared to other problems that impact small numbers of animals like fur/testing/being a stray dog/cat in a rick country its been ignored.

*I use breeds here for simplification, more accurately we would be discussing landraces, as the concept of a “breed” defined by a “breed standard” and closed genetic pool didn’t arrive till the Victorian era, and even afterwards we are talking about animals bred by the rural working class for practical use that wouldn’t be a part of an established breed.

*they use the word tractor or mini tractor, I assume they aren’t using it that word the way I would, perhaps they mean some golf cart like device?

*I had a tangent here on the lifespan of donkeys vs horses and cattle, but apparently the common claim that donkeys have a much longer lifespan when properly cared for than horses is on shoddy ground https://thehorse.com/156827/long-in-the-ears-caring-for-mules-and-donkeys-as-they-age/