Wild animals face significant sources of suffering including starvation, predation, parasites, and disease. Recognising this challenges traditional hands-off attitudes to wildlife welfare.
Wild animal suffering is the largest yet most neglected welfare issue. The romantic view of nature as red in tooth and claw but fundamentally benign obscures enormous amounts of suffering experienced by wild animals daily. While full interventionism is neither feasible nor advisable, the welfare of wild animals deserves moral consideration and targeted action where we can reduce suffering without causing worse outcomes.