Wild Animal Suffering — An Introduction

Wild animals experience enormous amounts of suffering from predation, disease, starvation and harsh weather — a neglected dimension of animal welfare that is gaining increasing attention.

Key Facts

Wild animals in nature experience high rates of injury, disease and parasitism
Most small mammals and birds die before reaching adulthood — often through predation or starvation
r-selected species produce enormous numbers of offspring with extremely high early mortality
Wild animal welfare has been estimated to be worse on average than that of farmed animals
Brian Tomasik and others have written extensively on the scale of wild animal suffering

Welfare Considerations

The welfare of wild animals challenges a common assumption that wildness means freedom from suffering. Nature contains an enormous amount of suffering — chronic pain from parasites and injury, starvation, fear and the trauma of predation. This does not mean that we should intervene recklessly in natural systems, but it does mean that a complete account of animal welfare must include wild animal suffering in its scope. Careful, evidence-based interventions are increasingly discussed among welfare scientists.

What You Can Do

Support research into safe, evidence-based wild animal welfare interventions
Engage with the growing literature on wild animal suffering through organisations like Wild Animal Initiative
Apply sound ecological principles to any discussions about wildlife management and welfare
Support habitat preservation as the most important available intervention for wild animal welfare