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The letter reports the suffering of abandoned cart horses and proposes welfare-improving strategies, including creating pension or provident funds and establishing sanctuaries. 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Abandoned horses typically experience a miserable life, which is ethically unacceptable. This piece of work reportson the suffering of an abandoned cart horse and proposes strategies to improve the welfare of such horses. A type of pension program or provident fund and sanctuary should be established for working animals to lessen their suffering after abandonment. Comprehensive studies should be conducted to gather more data on the suffering of abandoned horses and to develop context-dependent solutions.  \n1  Introduction  \nHorses, like companion equids, provide various socio-economic, historical and cultural services. They are highly integrated into the history of modern humans (Miraglia et al. 2006; Desta 2024) . Thus, the humane management of horses is an essential feature of human ethics. Maintaining the welfare of working and companion equids is morally and ethically highly desirable. In Ethiopia, cart horses are widely used to transport people and goods (Asfawand Tadesse 2020) . Cart horse owners earn a decent income from the services their horses provide. The income generated is used to cover incidental expenses such as children’s schooling, clothing, payment for medical and veterinary services, tax obligations, utility bills, food purchases, various other expenses and asset building (Asfaw and Tadesse 2020; Desta et al. 2022; Asteraye et al. 2024) .  \nRegardless of services provided, cart horses suffer greatly when abandoned due to poor health, loss of condition, accidental injury or aging (Daneil and Asmare 2013) . Abandoned cart horses live as strays and fly-grazers for the rest of their miserable lives. Consequently, they face significant suffering from diseases, scarcity of feed, predators, the irritation of biting flies, and blood-feeding birds such as red-billed oxpeckers (Buphagus  \nerythrorynchus), as well as harsh weather due to a lack of shelter. After cart horses provide years of service, abandoning them when they encounter health problems is immoral and inhumane. Unfortunately, abandoned cart horses are more common in urban areas (De Klerk et al. 2020), where grazing land is scarce, which aggravates their suffering.  \n2  Observational Findings  \nThis report revolves around the history of a horse I inadvertently encountered when it was bloodied and suckled by a red-billed oxpecker on the outskirts of Addis Ababa (Image 1). This bleeding was caused by an oxpecker that has a fondness for animal blood (Plantan et al. 2013), making the wound severely injurious and introducing new infections. Similarly, about 17 years ago (around 2008), I observed a group of abandoned cart horses that were presumably deliberately moved to the centre of a swampy area in Hawassa city, southern Ethiopia, to dispossess them of their owners’ property. In this scenario, sadly, they will be starved until their natural deaths occurred or were eaten alive by ruthless predators like hyenas. Since these horses are in poor condition, starving and stuck in the mud, they will surely not be able to move out of the swampy area.  \nThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.  \n© 2026 The Author(s) . Veterinary Medicine and Science","cbCaia10bNlWiQ6A","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaia10bNlWiQ6A","pdf",520893,"English","# Introduction\n# Observational Findings\n# Discussion","[{\"question\":\"Why are cart horses often abandoned in Ethiopia?\",\"answer\":\"Cart horses are abandoned when they become aged and/or face health problems such as poor health, loss of condition, accidental injury, or aging. Owners may leave them to live as strays afterward.\"},{\"question\":\"What major suffering do abandoned cart horses experience?\",\"answer\":\"They face diseases, scarcity of feed, predators, irritation from biting flies and blood-feeding birds like red-billed oxpeckers, and harsh weather due to lack of shelter.\"},{\"question\":\"What strategies does the letter propose to improve welfare for abandoned cart horses?\",\"answer\":\"It proposes establishing pension or provident funds for retired working animals, supporting rescue via contributions from owners, donors, and government, and creating sanctuaries or at least animal shelters. It also suggests life insurance schemes, safety-net programs, and public education to foster humane attitudes toward equines.\"}]","The Miserable Lives of Abandoned Cart Horses - Letter to the Editor | PDF",1790724368]