How do people depend on animals?

Working animals form the backbone of many economies in the developing world, supporting countless poor communities where many people experience chronic effects of poverty.

Far from being displaced by machines, working animals are increasingly relied upon. More than half the world's human population now depends upon animal power - and current FAO data states there as many as 90 million working equine animals in the developing world.

Jai and his younger brother, Om, with Raju, the mule

The people the Brooke works with are dependent on their animals in a variety of ways:

• haulage - pulling carts with construction materials, including steel girders
• load bearing - animals often have to carry extremely heavy loads of bricks or corrugated iron sheets, which can cut and maim
• tourism - carrying tourists, many of whom weigh far too much for any donkey or mule to carry comfortably
• pilgrimages - carrying people, as many as 10,000 a day worldwide, up dizzying paths to shrines
• And those animals are often put to work in some of the world's harshest environments:
• vast brick kiln factories - temperatures can reach as high as 50 degrees C in the areas where brick kilns are situated
• city streets and slums - animals often have to haul heavy goods through exhaust fume-choked streets or survive amongst rubbish-filled alleyways in urban slums
• remote terrain - many animals endure long, difficult journeys in rocky, steep and mountainous terrain while carrying people or goods to their destinations

These areas are where some of the world's poorest people work. These are people who rely on animals for their livelihoods whom are placed at greater risk when their animal is unable to work.

The Brooke works tirelessly to improve the lives working horses, donkeys and mules and, in turn, the lives of those who depend on them to survive.

The Brooke does this in a variety of ways:

• providing local veterinary services
• offering community based advice and training programmes
• advising NGOs and government ministries on livelihood programmes with a vet or animal component
• carrying out practical research for best solutions