The News  © John Wright

Facts and figures

• We currently work across ten countries in the Middle East, South Asia, Africa and South America, including Egypt, Jordan, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Kenya, Ethiopia, Israel & the West Bank and Nepal

• We operate 108 mobile teams & 15 field clinics

• We employ 800 highly skilled veterinary and support staff in the field

• Currently, we reach over 700,000 working horses, donkeys and mules a year

• Brooke’s work shows that an average of five to six people are dependent on each working animal because extended families rely on the income generated through a working animal. In this way, the Brooke helps support the livelihoods of around 4.3 million people

• We export our knowledge and skills across the world by forging partnerships with animal welfare and development organisations worldwide

• The working horses, donkeys and mules we reach are mostly used to transport people (including tourists, local inhabitants and pilgrims), and carry or pull loads of food, goods, building materials or bricks

• We have an on-going programme to install portable water troughs and shade shelters for working animals in places where they congregate

• About 80 per cent of the ailments we treat are the result of poverty experienced by owners and / or a lack of understanding on how to best care for their animals. We work with local communities to help change this – we never prosecute, campaign or involve ourselves in politics

• Each of our mobile teams can travel up to 60 miles a day, often through the harshest of terrain, in temperatures of up to 50°C.

• Our mobile teams reach into the heart of communities working with the local people to find long-lasting solutions for the equine problems they encounter

• We place particularly strong emphasis on educating children and young people in good equine welfare practices – they are the animal owners of tomorrow.

• We are the leading organisation in our field to scientifically measure the effect of our work. With Bristol University Veterinary School we are examining ways to study the suffering of working animals in the developing world, identify the worst problems and determine the most effective ways of ending that suffering

• A little money goes a long way with the Brooke: £20 could pay for all the painkillers that one mobile vet team in India will use for a whole month, £39 could pay for a Brooke vet for a day and all the medicines that they would need to treat horses and donkeys in need of expert care, £82 would cover the cost of training three animal health workers who will show people in their community how to provide good care for their animals, £160 will pay for a Brooke community facilitator for a whole month, helping owners understand problems like overloading and helping them develop solutions