PARADELA, Portugal — It’s not easy being a donkey today.

First, there is the image problem. But that is an old one. More recently, there are modern intrusions and fading memories of the donkey’s role, even here in the highlands of northeastern Portugal, where for centuries indigenous Miranda donkeys helped farmers plow fields and carry goods.

After decades of neglect and, some argue, misunderstanding, the fate of the donkey has come to resemble that of its human counterparts in hard-pressed European hinterlands: threatened by declining population and dependent for its survival on, yes, subsidies from the European Union.

Now, in an era of austerity, even donkeys have been swept up in the debate over just how far the European Union should go to maintain its farming regions, which are facing cuts to their financial support. The aid this year amounts to $78 billion, or 43 percent of the European Union’s overall budget, but under a recently struck deal, the farm spending will fall slightly until 2020, to about $68 billion a year, accounting for 38 percent of the union’s budget.

Since 2003, the large and docile Miranda donkey, named after the area where it lives, Tierra de Miranda, has been listed as an endangered breed. The Miranda, which has white markings around its eyes and a thick coat that it sheds as it grows old, has steadily been displaced by the tractor and other modern farming equipment.