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Working Equine Welfare
In many developing countries, working equines serve important roles as transportation and labor. In some areas, they form the basis of the rural economy. The poorly maintained routes over which they travel, the heavy burdens they are forced to bear or pull, the often makeshift harnesses and carriages—combined with frequently inadequate nourishment and lack of proper veterinary and farrier care—contribute to a life of misery for many thousands of horses and donkeys around the world. They suffer from internal and external parasites, debilitating pressure sores, and serious leg, foot, and hoof injuries.
The HSI Working Equine Welfare program helps to address these problems, bringing veterinary care, training for local veterinarians and veterinary students, and education for horse owners to remote communities. We promote the economic benefits of better care, engaging the community on many levels. Even children (future horse owners) are included through interactive humane education classes in the local schools conducted by an HSI staff member.
Our
partner in this initiative is The HSUS's Rural Area Veterinary Services (RAVS)
program, a traveling veterinary services program that brings volunteer
veterinary students and professional veterinarians to remote communities
around the United States and abroad.
Equine Program Promotes Equation: Better Animal Welfare = Better Profits
By Jennifer Felt
The mare, already old at five years, was pulling a cart burdened with five-gallon water jugs, a load so heavy that I was surprised she could haul it any distance let alone the many miles she had traveled that day.
As the horse stumbled and stopped, I could see that her bridle, woven from coarse rope, had worn its way through her coat of hair and pierced the skin, leaving raw open flesh where the rope continued to rub. Dark black scars, crusty reminders of old wounds, surrounded the fresh ones. Light pink skin covered her nose, muzzle and face, the result of constant exposure to the sun. I had never seen a sunburned horse before. The smallness of her frame was emphasized by her jutting ribs; she was skinny, very skinny. After she recovered from the stumble, I noticed that she favored her right front leg and poised her left in a position of rest. Her owner jumped off, grabbed the reins and pulled with all his might. She would not budge.
This was my opening. I walked slowly over. "Buenos dias, señor..."
Although this mental snapshot is from Honduras, the situation for horses, donkeys and mules is much the same in most developing countries, where equines are an integral part of the rural economy. They plow the fields, pull the loads, and carry the farmers and their families from place to place.
The heavy reliance on these animals, of course, is part of the problem. The combination of overwork, overloads, poor equipment, internal and external parasites, debilitating pressure sores, and leg, foot, and hoof injuries practically guarantees that these animals will live short and miserable lives.
Even the environment conspires against their welfare. In countries such as Honduras, water is frequently scarce and therefore a valuable commodity—to be consumed and used only by humans. What's more, shade is scarce and so spread out that many of the horses find themselves tied to a fence or working in the fields all day in the direct sun. Many, like the poor mare mentioned above, sustain severe sunburns.
To combat this suffering, Humane Society International, along with our partner The HSUS's Rural Area Veterinary Services (RAVS), formally launched the Working Equine Welfare program with a trip to the Attacama Desert region of northern Peru in late 2002. Over the course of two weeks, we treated nearly 800 animals. A few months later, in early 2003, we traveled to the even more remote Peten region of Guatemala where RAVS has been working since 1995, bringing veterinary care to nine communities.
The Working Equine Welfare program not only brings modern veterinary care to areas where little or no such service previously existed, but it also educates and trains the local populace to ensure continued improvement in the conditions under which these animals struggle. HSI/RAVS does this by identifying "horse technicians" in each community and training them to treat common equine ailments. We even include the children— future horse owners, after all—through interactive humane education classes in the local schools. The idea here is to promote a basic equation: better animal care equals economic benefit.
As owners start to see that their horses are healthier and living longer, they come to realize that the extra effort to care for these animals is not a high price to pay. And, as I pointed out to my Honduran friend, many of the solutions are simple to employ— shade can be created by leaning a few palm leaves over a home. Mixing molasses (readily found in the community) with other feed items can provide much needed nutrients. Local plants can help ease the pain of sunburns. Padding can be created by layering inexpensive cloth to protect against a makeshift bridle made from course rope.
Through years of working in Guatemala, we've seen that owners truly care about the welfare of their animals and eagerly make changes in how they treat them based on suggestions such as those I shared with my Honduran friend. In the Peten region, where RAVS has focused its efforts, horses now are healthier, able to do far more work, and are living much longer than five years (the common lifespan in Honduras, I found).
HSI's Working Equine Welfare program will return to Northern Peru in 2003, and a second trip will be made to Guatemala as well. Plans are underway to expand into Honduras as soon as funds become available.
Jennifer Felt is Humane Society International's Program Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean.
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