Equine-powered transport
Working animals perform a huge variety of tasks, depending on the local economy, geography and population. In towns and cities, horses, donkeys or mules are often used to pull carts or carriages to transport people from place to place — an equine-powered taxi. Carts are also used to haul goods, such as vegetables, to sell at market, and even for delivering water door to door.
Donkeys especially are frequently found working on construction sites, hauling heavy loads of bricks, concrete and other building materials. In rural areas, working animals can fulfil very different roles. A horse, donkey or mule is indispensable for many subsistence farmers — fetching feed for other animals, pulling ploughs and providing manure for fertiliser. Donkeys and mules are also used to carry drinking water from dams and rivers back to settlements. In many parts of Africa, such as in rural Kenya, this task would otherwise fall to women and children, who would have to carry gallons of water every day. SPANA aims to assist as many animals as possible, both through its permanent centres and the mobile clinics that often travel long distances to reach remote rural locations. For instance, in Morocco SPANA operates vet centres in the cities of Marrakech and Casablanca and in three towns (Chemaia, Khemisset and Had Ouled Frej), in addition to two mobile clinics. Last year, SPANA vets provided 376,151 treatments for sick and injured working animals around the world.