Wild animal welfare raises profound philosophical questions about our obligations toward the billions of animals who experience suffering in natural ecosystems.
Wild animal welfare raises some of the most challenging questions in animal ethics. The majority of animals who exist in nature die through predation or starvation, often experiencing significant suffering. If we take animal suffering seriously, the scale of wild animal suffering is enormous. However, practical interventions in wild ecosystems are extremely limited and risk causing unforeseen harm. Most current animal welfare work appropriately focuses on the much more tractable problem of human-caused animal suffering. Wild animal welfare is a growing field of philosophical and practical inquiry deserving of more attention and research investment.