Can Animals Get PTSD?
What 80 percent of working donkeys tell us about trauma.
Posted August 21, 2025 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
When we talk about post- traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ), we are usually talking about human survivors of war, violence, or abuse. But what if the same patterns of psychological distress are found in other species—those without a voice to tell us what they’re feeling?
A new peer-reviewed study we co-authored was recently published in the journal Animals and suggests that trauma is experienced by species other than humans. 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 are 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.
These are not anecdotal impressions. They are patterns repeatedly observed and documented across kiln sites and border regions where donkey labor is most concentrated. And when considered through the lens of human trauma psychology, they raise difficult, urgent questions.
Trauma, without words
In clinical settings, PTSD is diagnosed through a combination of behavioral and emotional symptoms—flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance, shutdown. But when a human patient cannot express their pain in words, the effects of their trauma can and must be recognized in other ways. Behavioral observations have long been used to assess trauma—for example, in victims who are children or elderly, and others for whom words are either not yet available or have been lost.
For donkeys, trauma shows up in behaviors like flinching at human contact, freezing when approached, and shutting down completely, akin to dissociation in humans. Their utter passivity is often mistaken for the erroneous stereotype of donkeys as stoics. Our study argues that this is a profound misreading: What we’re really seeing is psychological defeat—a loss of hope, autonomy, and the natural fight-or-flight instinct. This syndrome is typically referred to as a state of learned helplessness . It is the giving up of all hope that one can effect any change or relief from their abusive circumstances.
These animals aren’t indifferent. They are, in many cases, emotionally overwhelmed. And it’s not the first time this pattern has been documented. Studies of elephants, chimpanzees, and other mammals have also shown symptoms of complex PTSD when exposed to repeated abuse or distress. Our study is the first to systematically apply that lens to donkeys and mules.
A misunderstood species
Unlike dogs or cats, long deemed worthy of compassion, donkeys have long been labelled as “beasts of burden.” Their emotional states are often ignored, and their quietness or passivity misinterpreted as resilience . But they, too, possess a mammalian brain wired for pain, fear , attachment —and, yes, joy.
When they are denied any opportunity to exercise choice or experience relief, when the stress becomes inescapable, they may enter a state of learned helplessness—the collapse described earlier.
Some dismiss this interpretation as anthropomorphism —projecting human emotions onto animals. But research increasingly shows that many non-human animals, particularly mammals, experience emotions that closely parallel our own. Recognizing trauma-like responses in donkeys isn’t sentimentality; it’s science. Failing to see those emotional parallels isn’t scientific objectivity; it’s empathic failure.
A humane alternative, in progress
The findings of this study have already begun shaping practical change. Safe Haven for Donkeys , the United Kingdom-based charity Anna Harrison works with, is preparing to pilot a tractor-led alternative to donkey labor in one of Egypt’s brick kilns. In a context where donkeys are routinely overworked, underfed, and beaten, the shift to mechanized transport offers the potential for radical relief—not just for animals, but for human workers, too.
The pilot is being developed in consultation with kiln owners, some of whom have expressed willingness to test machinery despite previous resistance and logistical barriers. Models in India have shown it can work.
If successful, the project could provide a humane and scalable blueprint—one that challenges the notion that animal suffering is simply the cost of economic survival.
What we take from this, as humans
This page is called "Beyond Human" for a reason. We believe that recognizing trauma in non-human animals is not just about ethics but about expanding our understanding of trauma itself: how it manifests, what causes it, and how healing might begin, in all corners of the world, and even for the most vulnerable and voiceless, like donkeys.
Donkeys because they are among the most overlooked and misunderstood of animals. But the implications ripple outward. The parallels between human and animal trauma are not incidental—they are instructive.
By seeing suffering more clearly, even when it is carried on a different face, we begin to widen the circle of compassion. And in doing so, we may come to treat all beings not just as means to an end—but as lives worthy of care.
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Anna Harrison, MRCVS, is Veterinary Advisor to Safe Haven for Donkeys.
Theodora Capaldo, Ed.D., is a licensed psychologist and long-time animal advocate working to highlight PTSD in animals.
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.