Hope for cutting-edge welfare tool

THE Donkey Sanctuary and World Horse Welfare have together launched a welfare tool which “places cutting-edge technology at the centre of the charities’ research strategy”.

Both organisations hope the “equid assessment research and scoping” (EARS) tool will give a better understanding of the reasons for poor equine health across the world, and allow the charities to measure the impact of their work.

EARS uses a “sophisticated and versatile” questionnaire designed to collate information about each equid and its environment, or a group of animals in similar circumstances.

Joao Rodrigues, lead in welfare assessment at The Donkey Sanctuary, said: “For me, one of the strongest aspects of the EARS is that it will give us the chance to build specific protocols for specific situations, regardless of the location or function of a working equid, allowing us to collect evidence-based information in a very accurate way and guiding us in the decision-making process.”

World Horse Welfare international programme officer Emma Hales said the charity is “very excited” about being involved.

“It has been a great opportunity to work with The Donkey Sanctuary on developing this welfare assessment tool, enabling us to share and include both organisations’ experiences of assessing the welfare of equids in the field. We plan to use the EARS tool to support much of our work in the UK, Europe and internationally.”