The COVID-19 pandemic created novel animal welfare challenges — from pet adoption surges to slaughterhouse shutdowns and wild animal market biosecurity — revealing systemic vulnerabilities in human-animal relationships.
The pandemic's animal welfare impacts were diverse and globally significant. Mink farm culls in the Netherlands and Denmark killed millions of animals in welfare-compromising emergency conditions. Slaughterhouse shutdowns in the US left pigs and poultry backed up on farms, requiring mass on-farm euthanasia of millions of animals. Surrendered pandemic pets often struggled with behavioral problems from inadequate socialization during lockdown. The pandemic exposed how fragile animal welfare can be within systems not designed with welfare resilience in mind.