Conservation grazing uses cattle, horses, and other herbivores to manage habitats for biodiversity, creating welfare management challenges for animals living in naturalistic conditions.
Conservation grazing welfare exists in the tension between providing naturalistic freedom and meeting duty-of-care obligations: animals under human management retain welfare protections even in semi-wild conditions. Conservation grazers that starve in winter because habitat productivity is insufficient, or that receive no veterinary attention for injuries, experience welfare failures that are not mitigated by their ecological role. The welfare case for conservation grazing is strong when managed well — animals live natural lives while performing an ecological function — but requires active welfare monitoring even in low-intervention systems.