Corvids including ravens, crows, and jays demonstrate exceptional intelligence with welfare implications for how they are treated in pest control and research contexts.
Corvid cognitive complexity means they are capable of suffering in psychologically sophisticated ways that most people do not attribute to birds. Crow pest control methods that cause prolonged suffering or death are difficult to ethically justify given their cognitive abilities. Wild corvids used in research require welfare consideration equivalent to that afforded mammals of similar cognitive complexity.