End of life, a good death? Navigating end-of-life decisions for working mules (Equus asinus × Equus caballus) in Nepal: Ethical, cultural, and practical perspectives

This paper investigates end-of-life decisions for working mules in Nepal, drawing on semi-structured interviews, observations and surveys conducted in the mountainous Gorkha region. The authors contemplate the relationship of humans and mules, exploring how interconnecting influences affect the welfare of mules when their working lives are enduringly concluded. In remote regions in Nepal when mules are permanently retired from work, limited options are available to equid-owning communities, where political systems keep marginalised communities marginalised. So, for guidance in decision making, these communities turn to the sociocultural systems that relate humanity to belief systems such as spirituality, ethics, morality, and social values; we explore how mules find themselves positioned within these systems. Consequences of redundancy within this population meant an ‘out of work’ mule's future care, in these remote mountain regions, may range from limited care, decreasing care, abandonment, or permanent incarceration (until the equid dies). This article draws lightly on Judith Butler's concept of grievability to apprehend the precarity, disposability, mournability and relational entanglements of working equids with their owners at the end of their working lives. This study contributes to a small but growing body of research investigating what end of life means for equids, how owners make decisions about end of life, and what impact this may have for working mules who have spent their life in the service of humans, specifically adding to the paucity of literature relating to how this translates for working equids in Nepal. • Psychological distancing tactics used. • Mules abandoned or “set free” in mountains or kept confined until death. • Rituals for spiritual journey – recognition of individual. • Dismissal of euthanasia, believed to disrupt spiritual journey. • Predominant reliance on socio-cultural factors for decision-making.