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Recognition of emotion and pain by owners benefits the welfare of donkeys in a challenging working environment
Working donkeys (Equus asinus) support human living standards globally. However, there is little information on the effect of human perceptions of emotion and pain on the welfare of working donkeys. We interviewed donkey owners (n = 332) in Pakistan to determine the relationship between human perspe...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
PeerJ Inc.
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10416770/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37576503 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15747 |
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author | Bukhari, Syed S.U.H. McElligott, Alan G. Rosanowski, Sarah M. Parkes, Rebecca S.V. |
author_facet | Bukhari, Syed S.U.H. McElligott, Alan G. Rosanowski, Sarah M. Parkes, Rebecca S.V. |
author_sort | Bukhari, Syed S.U.H. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Working donkeys (Equus asinus) support human living standards globally. However, there is little information on the effect of human perceptions of emotion and pain on the welfare of working donkeys. We interviewed donkey owners (n = 332) in Pakistan to determine the relationship between human perspectives on donkey sentience: emotions and the ability to feel pain, and the routine working practices that could impact donkey welfare. The majority of donkey owners used padding under the saddle (n = 211; 63.6%; 95% CI (58.3%–68.9%)) and provided access to food (n = 213; 64.2%; 95% CI (58.9%–69.3%)) and water (n = 195; 58.7%; 95% CI (53.4%–64.1%)) during the working day. Owners reported that at some point in their donkey’s life, 65.3% (95% CI (60.2%–70.5%)) had load-associated injuries, of which 27.7% (n = 92; 95% CI (22.8%–32.5%)) were wounds, 20.5% (n = 68; 95% CI (16.1%–24.8%)) were lameness and 7.2% (n = 24; 95% CI 4.4%–10.0%) were back pain. In total, 81.3% (95% CI 77.1%–85.5%; n = 270) of owners believed that their donkeys felt pain, and 70.2% (95% CI (65.2%–75.1%; n = 233) of owners believed that their donkeys had emotions. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) was used to understand the relationship between owners’ recognition of emotions and pain in donkeys and their working practices. The MCA factor map revealed two clusters, named positive and negative clusters. The positive cluster included owner’s recognition of donkey pain and emotions, the availability of food and water, use of padding under the saddle, absence of injuries along with the willingness to follow loading guidelines. The negative cluster represented practices that did not benefit donkey welfare, such as using saddles without padding and a lack of food and water during work. The presence of injuries, owners not recognizing that donkeys feel pain and emotion along with an unwillingness to follow loading guidelines were also found in the negative cluster. We show that the owners who recognized sentience in their donkeys were more likely to use practices that are good for donkey welfare. The ability of owners to identify sentience in donkeys, along with their willingness to follow welfare guidelines, are important factors in improving the lives of working donkeys. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10416770 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-104167702023-08-12 Recognition of emotion and pain by owners benefits the welfare of donkeys in a challenging working environment Bukhari, Syed S.U.H. McElligott, Alan G. Rosanowski, Sarah M. Parkes, Rebecca S.V. PeerJ Animal Behavior Working donkeys (Equus asinus) support human living standards globally. However, there is little information on the effect of human perceptions of emotion and pain on the welfare of working donkeys. We interviewed donkey owners (n = 332) in Pakistan to determine the relationship between human perspectives on donkey sentience: emotions and the ability to feel pain, and the routine working practices that could impact donkey welfare. The majority of donkey owners used padding under the saddle (n = 211; 63.6%; 95% CI (58.3%–68.9%)) and provided access to food (n = 213; 64.2%; 95% CI (58.9%–69.3%)) and water (n = 195; 58.7%; 95% CI (53.4%–64.1%)) during the working day. Owners reported that at some point in their donkey’s life, 65.3% (95% CI (60.2%–70.5%)) had load-associated injuries, of which 27.7% (n = 92; 95% CI (22.8%–32.5%)) were wounds, 20.5% (n = 68; 95% CI (16.1%–24.8%)) were lameness and 7.2% (n = 24; 95% CI 4.4%–10.0%) were back pain. In total, 81.3% (95% CI 77.1%–85.5%; n = 270) of owners believed that their donkeys felt pain, and 70.2% (95% CI (65.2%–75.1%; n = 233) of owners believed that their donkeys had emotions. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) was used to understand the relationship between owners’ recognition of emotions and pain in donkeys and their working practices. The MCA factor map revealed two clusters, named positive and negative clusters. The positive cluster included owner’s recognition of donkey pain and emotions, the availability of food and water, use of padding under the saddle, absence of injuries along with the willingness to follow loading guidelines. The negative cluster represented practices that did not benefit donkey welfare, such as using saddles without padding and a lack of food and water during work. The presence of injuries, owners not recognizing that donkeys feel pain and emotion along with an unwillingness to follow loading guidelines were also found in the negative cluster. We show that the owners who recognized sentience in their donkeys were more likely to use practices that are good for donkey welfare. The ability of owners to identify sentience in donkeys, along with their willingness to follow welfare guidelines, are important factors in improving the lives of working donkeys. PeerJ Inc. 2023-08-08 /pmc/articles/PMC10416770/ /pubmed/37576503 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15747 Text en ©2023 Bukhari et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. |
spellingShingle | Animal Behavior Bukhari, Syed S.U.H. McElligott, Alan G. Rosanowski, Sarah M. Parkes, Rebecca S.V. Recognition of emotion and pain by owners benefits the welfare of donkeys in a challenging working environment |
title | Recognition of emotion and pain by owners benefits the welfare of donkeys in a challenging working environment |
title_full | Recognition of emotion and pain by owners benefits the welfare of donkeys in a challenging working environment |
title_fullStr | Recognition of emotion and pain by owners benefits the welfare of donkeys in a challenging working environment |
title_full_unstemmed | Recognition of emotion and pain by owners benefits the welfare of donkeys in a challenging working environment |
title_short | Recognition of emotion and pain by owners benefits the welfare of donkeys in a challenging working environment |
title_sort | recognition of emotion and pain by owners benefits the welfare of donkeys in a challenging working environment |
topic | Animal Behavior |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10416770/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37576503 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15747 |
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