Botswana donkeys to get reflective ear tags
A British animal charity is working to put reflective ear tags on 500 donkeys in northern Botswana, in an effort to reduce road traffic accidents involving the animals at night.
The Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad (SPANA) — a UK-based international working animal charity — has funded partner charity the Maun Animal Welfare Society (MAWS), which is based in Botswana, to attach the tags.
Around 10% of road traffic accidents in Botswana are caused by animals, which often roam on the roads looking for grazing, but are invisible to drivers at night.
“The people that own working donkeys are some of the very poorest in Botswana’s society and often have no choice other than to let their animals roam freely in search of food,” said SPANA’s Laura Higham.
“This practice is essential but obviously makes the donkeys vulnerable to accidents and we hope that this simple solution will help reduce the number of collisions.”
SPANA and MAWS want the project to be adopted in other parts of the country and hope this will be the first step towards making reflective tags a legal requirement for freely roaming donkeys and livestock in Botswana.
For more information visit www.spana.org and www.maunanimalwelfare.com
Never miss out on the latest happenings in the equestrian world
Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now
A graduate from Durham University, Madeleine joined H&H in 2011 and became Features Editor — producing content across the magazine and website, including the popular inside back cover article ‘The horse that made me’ and the weekly ‘The best of my fun…’ interview. She has written on topics as diverse as hay making and headcams, to hot totty in the horse world and circus horses. Madeleine now works as a freelance feature writer for Country Life, The Telegraph, Horse & Hound, cntraveller.com, The Spectator and The Field, as well as writing obituaries for The Times.