Wild animal welfare extends to natural predation and disease — not only human-caused suffering. Welfare science increasingly grapples with interventions in wild suffering.
The suffering of wild animals from natural causes is numerically enormous but poorly studied. Most prey animals do not die instantly — predation involves pursuit, capture, and death by suffocation or shock. Disease and starvation cause prolonged suffering in wild populations. Welfare science has historically focused on human-caused suffering, but the emerging field of wild animal welfare examines whether interventions to reduce naturally caused suffering are feasible and justified. These questions involve deep uncertainty about ecological consequences and ethical principles.