Tanzania Humane Charity (TAHUCHA) - August Case Study 2

On the 21st August 2021, the TAHUCHA teams were on their daily veterinary ambulatory services in the Bukombe district, when they came across a donkey with a severe wound on the neck while pulling a cart with a load of 245 bricks (approximate 938kg) plus the 200kg cart that was being pulled just by two donkeys.

It was heartbreaking for the team to see the innocent and voiceless donkey suffering and in a lot of pain on its neck due to the inhumane wooden yoke harnessing.

The TAHUCHA team examined and provided first aid to the donkey. They gave painkillers so as to relief pain, cleaned the wound and dressed it, as well as removing the donkey from the yoke.

The TAHUCHA team went directly to the owner of the donkey to provide advice on how to prevent this cruel negligence and to rest the donkey until it’s made a full recovery. The owner wishes that there was a more widespread change to the harnessing culture because the community is ready to adapt to new harnessing in order to avoid wounds caused by wooden yokes.

In Bukombe there are almost 2,500 inhumane yokes leading to severe yoke related wounds. This kind of yoke wound is very common, and the aim is to replace this inhumane harnessing. It was heartening for the team to see that the community is ready to receive and adopt a new harnessing culture for the sake of their donkey’s health. However, it will take a long time for the community to adopt humane harnessing. Wooden ox yoke harnessing is second to the donkey skin trade as the top donkey welfare challenge in Bukombe.