Improving Animal Welfare: A Practical Approach Edited by Dr. Temple Grandin Colorado State University, USA ISBN: 978-1-84593-541-2 c. 336 pages 131 figures/illustrations Subject Classifcation: KNAC, PSVP, TVH, TW Territorial Market Rights: World Published by CABI Links for ordering: Amazon.Com CABI.org

Below is an excerpt from Chapter 13...

I have spent the majority of my academic career as Coordinator of the Michigan State University (MSU) Horse Management Program. Among my primary goals has been to teach students strategies to optimally manage horses to: maximize competitive performance; enhance diet formulation; optimize profitability; enhance breeding programs; and select horses based largely on aesthetic parameters.

What a rude awakening for me to become passionately involved with the welfare of working horses and donkeys beginning in 2000 with my first of three trips to Brazil. I now think in terms of what are five to 15 essential things these owners can do to enhance the welfare of their animals. Realizing that in enhancing the welfare of their carthorse or donkey, they, in turn, enhance the well-being of their family (Starkey, 1997; Kitalyi et al., 2005).

Instead of worrying about amino acid profiles to enhance the growth of young stock, I try to teach owners of working equids the importance of letting their animal graze or forage whenever it is not actively working; instead of worrying about choosing the perfectly shaped dressage girth so as to not pinch a horse behind its elbows, I encourage people to provide enough clean padding on harnesses so the animals do not have to work with open sores; instead of trying to train a student how to perform a ridden maneuver with the slightest of leg pressure, I encourage owners not to beat their animals with sticks or whips; and rather than focusing on how to optimally wrap an injury to minimize scarring, I simply try to ensure the working equid owner knows that packing a wound with traditional ‘medicines’ such as mud or manure or diesel fuel will only contribute to infection.

Most of the owners/handlers of these horses, donkeys and mules are not intentionally cruel; rather they live in suboptimal environments and equine husbandry information and outreach are rare commodities. In some cases, it is the limitation of their financial resources that prevents them firm doing more for their animals, hut in many cases, it is simply a lack of knowledge on their parts.

If you are a professional/paraprofessional working in a developing part of the world, your work is to be commended. You are serving a very important purpose and one that will greatly improve the welfare of many animals. The suggestions that follow arc designed to involve minimal financial inputs. We hope to bring about a transition in the husbandry of working equids from reactive health care (treating wounds or rehabilitating animals too ill or undernourished to continue working) to proactive husbandry so that animals can work more productively, have enhanced longevity and well-being. This, in turn, contributes to the wellbeing of families who depend on these animals and, as we have seen first hand, contributes to the pride they have in their working animals.

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