Eighty-two percent of working donkeys in brick kilns display behaviors consistent with complex PTSD. Observed signs include withdrawal, emotional numbing, hypervigilance, exaggerated startle responses, avoidance behaviors, and apparent apathy or depression. Causes include inescapable captivity, deprivation, excessive physical demands, lack of species-specific needs fulfilment, abuse, and deprivation of safety or comfort. Field observations and welfare assessments across Egypt, India, Nepal, and Pakistan show these patterns repeatedly at kiln sites and border regions where donkey labor concentrates. These behavioral patterns mirror trauma responses in humans and suggest apparent stoicism may reflect learned helplessness from chronic, inescapable abuse and stress.
Our work focused on donkeys working in the harsh environment of the brick kilns in Egypt. The study adds to the growing body of evidence that psychological and physical trauma causes a constellation of symptoms in animals that is not unlike human reactions to traumatic experiences. Donkeys psychologically suffer due to inescapable captivity, deprivation, excessive demands on their strength, lack of species-specific need fulfilment, abuse, and deprivations of safety or comfort.
Drawing on field observations and welfare assessments of working donkeys and mules in Egypt, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, we found compelling evidence that many of these animals are not just physically overburdened; they are also psychologically traumatized. Up to 82 percent of the donkeys observed in the study were described as apathetic or depressed. Many displayed symptoms consistent with complex PTSD, including emotional numbing, hypervigilance, startle responses, and avoidance behaviors.
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