Animals in natural history museum collections were once obtained through practices now considered welfare violations.
Natural history museum collections represent a complex welfare legacy. Historical collecting expeditions killed large numbers of animals — sometimes of now-threatened species — to build reference collections. The welfare costs of those historical practices cannot be undone. Contemporary collection practices are far more regulated, with ethical oversight and minimization of lethal collecting. The scientific value of these collections — which preserve specimens that allow genetic, morphological, and ecological analysis impossible with living animals — is genuine and ongoing. This history provides a useful context for understanding how welfare standards evolve over time.