Vultures are being poisoned across Africa and Asia at catastrophic rates, causing rapid population collapse and removing a critical ecosystem service from millions of square kilometres.
Poisoned vultures die slowly and in large numbers — a single poisoning event can kill hundreds of birds within days. The welfare harm is compounded by the ecosystem consequence: without vultures, carcasses persist longer, spreading disease to livestock and humans. Individual vulture deaths from poisoning involve prolonged suffering from convulsions and organ failure. The scale of the poisoning crisis — potentially threatening multiple species with extinction — makes this one of the most acute welfare emergencies in modern conservation.