Assessment of Community Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Equine Welfare in Bahir Dar City, Ethiopia

A cross-sectional study was conducted from January to August 2024 involving 427 participants from four randomly selected kebeles in Bahir Dar city, Ethiopia, to assess community knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding equine welfare. Data were collected through the administration of a semi-structured, pre-tested questionnaire. The collected data were entered into Microsoft Excel and then transferred to SPSS version 29 for analysis. Descriptive statistics were employed to summarize the data, and a chi-square test was used to evaluate the association of sociodemographic factors with the knowledge, attitude, and practices of equine owners towards equine welfare. About 391 (91.6%) of the equine owners who participated in this study were male, while 36 (8.4%) were female. The average score of the respondents’ knowledge out of the 50 possible points was 34.78(±5.320). About 44.0% of respondents had a higher average knowledge score. Only 2.8% of participants had a positive attitude, while 21% had a negative attitude towards equine welfare. The average score of the respondents ’practice out of the 75 possible points was low 50 (±2.666). About 97.9% of respondents had a medium average practice score (Fair). Knowledge and attitude are significantly associated with the socio-demographics of owners and each other (p<0.05). Generally KAP of community toward equine welfare is low. The research findings demonstrate the need for targeted education and training on knowledge, attitude and practices, and community conversions to engage equine owners in discussion to improve equine welfare.