Donkeys have been serving mankind several millions of years. The phrase the beast of burden describestheir utility as pack animals in many parts of the world as they play a significant economi and social role in transport, whether riding, pack transport or pulling carts. They may also be used for farm tillage. Working donkeys suffer from various walfare constraints that need to be investigated and ameliorated. These walfare constrains significantly reduce work prudctivity and life of donkey and hence the owners livelihoods.
A study to determine welfare differences between working donkeys in both rural and urban/peri-urban setting of miwingi central sub county of kitui county-Kenya was done. A total of 396 donkeys were sampled out of a donkey population of 35,361 in the sub county. A confidence level of 95% and a sampling error of 5% were used. The 396 donkeys were proportionalately allocated into urban?peri-urban and rural settings as 215 and 181 respectively.
The study used donkey physical alfare parameters namely lameness, evenness of the hoof, eye conditions and body condition score to compare the two sets of animals. There was more lameness in animals working in the urban /peri-urban setting (14,4%) compared to the rural settings (11,6%). The physical wlafare indicators namely hoof evennerss, overgrown hooves, body wounds, scars, eye discharges and corneal opacity were shown to have significant differences at p