Wild Animal Suffering and Effective Altruism

The effective altruism movement has identified wild animal suffering as one of the most neglected welfare issues.

Key Facts

Wild animals vastly outnumber humans and farm animals combined
Many wild animal lives involve chronic stress, disease, parasitism, and predation
Wild animal suffering is almost entirely neglected by welfare organizations
Wild Animal Initiative and similar groups fund research into wild animal welfare

Welfare Considerations

Wild animal suffering represents perhaps the largest scale of preventable suffering in the world, yet receives a fraction of the funding and attention of companion animal or farm animal welfare. Many wild animals live brief lives filled with hardship — invertebrate young dying en masse, prey animals experiencing predation, and animals suffering from parasites and disease. While intervention in nature raises complex ecological questions, the scale of suffering demands serious moral consideration and research attention.

What You Can Do

Learn about wild animal welfare as a field
Support organizations researching wild animal suffering interventions
Engage thoughtfully with the ethics of wild animal welfare
Donate to research on wild animal wellbeing if you are able