Overworked, overladen and under-appreciated. Using pack animals can make your trek more enjoyable – but is the price sometimes too high? Glen Cousquer reports on a new initiative to help the donkeys of Morocco.

It was early morning and the heat of the Moroccan sun had not yet warmed up the valley floor. The waters of the Oued Tessaout were swollen with snowmelt, wild and turbulent from their helter-skelter race down through the Wandras Gorges. We were bound for the Ighil Mgoun (4,068m) and had a steep climb ahead of us onto the Tarkeddid plateau. The group had broken camp; it was time to head off.

Something was amiss though and an air of consternation tempered the usual good humour of the muleteers: one of the mules was ill and in considerable pain. The guide, however, was in a hurry to leave, his tone impatient. I looked the mule over and shook my head. A large swelling had appeared over her lower back – it was hot, weeping and very painful to the touch. The guide had been unwilling (or unable) to pay for extra mules and our group of five Europeans and one guide were only accompanied by three mules. These mules had been overloaded and overworked and this was the result: a bad saddle sore. 

I retrieved my pack and started reorganising it. I’d be carrying all my things from here on. The muleteers were surprised and very appreciative. I suggested that they redistribute the weight as best they could. I then approached the guide and told him that the mule was not well enough to continue working. The discussion became heated and it was some time before he accepted that they needed to find another mule.

That was 1995. At the time, I was finishing my veterinary studies at the University of Edinburgh. In the intervening years I’ve trekked and ridden extensively in the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Rockies and the Himalaya. Whether on horseback or accompanied by pack animals, I’ve always viewed my four-legged companions as fellow team members and respected our mutual dependency.

In 2007, I returned to the University of Edinburgh for an MSc in Outdoor Education. I found myself revisiting the High Atlas of Morocco as part of a student expedition and undertaking a study into the potential for educational and veterinary initiatives to improve the welfare of pack mules on expedition. As part of this study, the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad (SPANA), who have been looking after working animals in Morocco for over eighty years, undertook a veterinary visit to the Aït Bouguemmez valley. This allowed our mules to receive a free veterinary health check, and any necessary treatment prior to leaving on expedition. In addition to our mules, some forty local mules were also treated during the course of the afternoon. Many of the problems identified were all too familiar: tethering injuries, saddle sores, parasitism, dental disease and wounds.

At the end of the expedition our group visited the national Mountain Guide training school in Tabant. The Centre de Formation aux Métiers de Montagne (CFAMM) was set up as part of a Franco-Moroccan development project in 1985. The French collaboration ended in 1996 and since then the school has somehow kept going, despite chronic underfunding. The school’s director was very interested in the idea of a course on pack animal care for Mountain Guides but left us in no doubt that we would have to seek approval through the proper channels.

The seed had been sown and, over the following eighteen months, a course programme was developed at the University of Edinburgh. It was recognised that this course had to be ethically informed and experientially based. A detailed evaluation was made of the responsibilities of Mountain Guides, Mountain Leaders, Expedition Leaders, trekkers and tourists, as well as the tourism industry, to pack animals on expedition.

Amazingly, pack animals have received little recognition and are not even mentioned by the various ethical codes that have sprung up within the tourism, trekking and mountaineering industries. For example, the UIAA (the international body for mountaineering) has produced a series of ethical codes over the years, yet each fails to mention pack animals. Perhaps no surprise when we consider how long it took to recognise our responsibilities to mountain porters – the International Porter Protection Group has done a sterling job but it took a number of deaths for the issue to really hit home.

In practice, the guide’s and muleteer’s responsibilities overlap, making it difficult to assign responsibility. But the guide – and indeed the tourist or trekking agency – are able to stipulate minimal standards of care and work. If it’s accepted that working practices should not result in injury to the pack mule then certain practices such as the use of ill-fitting, worn saddles or nylon ropes become unacceptable.

In March 2010 – with funding and support from the Donkey Sanctuary – the first training course in pack animal care for Mountain Guides was delivered at the CFAMM in Tabant. The course seeks to develop the Guides’ awareness and understanding of a range of common welfare problems. In this way, it is hoped that they’ll be able to prevent such problems wherever possible, identify them early when they do occur and treat them. The course was very well received by the students and has now become a regular module in the Guides’ training programme. This educational initiative is also complimented by a regular visit to this remote area of the High Atlas by a SPANA mobile clinic.

It is hoped that, in time, this work will lead to the development of a code of practice for the use and care of pack mules on expedition. Our responsibilities as trekkers, mountaineers, guides, leaders and tourists towards pack animals on expedition have received little attention to date. Welfare problems resulting from ignorance, poor equipment, inadequate nutrition, overloading and overwork are commonplace. But work is ongoing at the University of Edinburgh to develop our understanding of these various issues and it is hoped that, over time, we can improve practice and take a load off our four-legged friends.

BMC member Glen Cousquer is a veterinary surgeon and Mountain Leader with a life-long passion for the outdoors. After ten years in veterinary practice he retrained in outdoor education with an MSc at the University of Edinburgh. This was the springboard for the development of an educational initiative on pack animal care for expedition leaders. Glen currently spends up to four months a year working in Morocco – at the Centre de Formation aux Métiers de Montagne and leading treks and expeditions.

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