Improving the lives of people through improving the welfare of their working equids.

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For many of the world's poorest people, over 100 million working equids provide vital support for livelihoods, access to healthcare, education and basic necessities. The reliance on working equids for everyday life makes them people's most important livestock and they can be especially valuable to women. Despite this, the welfare standards of working equids are often low with heat exposure and insect challenge considered to be two of the biggest problems facing working equids. Improving the welfare of working equids will enhance equid productivity and by virtue of the interdependent relationship between working equids and their owners, will provide owners with social, economic and welfare benefits. This multidisciplinary project will use research methods from psychology, social sciences and animal behaviour to provide an understanding of the welfare needs of working equids, the relationship between equids and their owners and the practical challenges that exist to good working equid welfare. Research will be conducted into natural shelter use by healthy equids in hot climates which will provide a basis for defining good welfare standards. The physiological effects of climate will be investigated through heat loss and hair density analysis. Interviews will be conducted with equid owners to assess the human impacts that improved working equid welfare would have. Ultimately the project will develop a practical, research-led initiative that will be implemented to improve working equid welfare. The project will use a holistic approach that considers human wellbeing alongside equid welfare and aims to improve the lives of both people and animals.