Most animal suffering occurs not in farms or labs but in the wild. Disease, predation, starvation, and parasitism affect vast numbers of wild animals — and this is increasingly discussed in welfare circles.
The welfare of wild animals is largely invisible to public concern despite involving numbers of suffering animals that dwarf farming. A single r-selected fish may produce millions of eggs, the vast majority of which die within days from predation and starvation. Disease in wild populations can cause prolonged suffering before death. Parasitism affects billions of wild animals simultaneously. The natural framing — suffering in nature is inevitable — does not reduce its moral significance if animals can experience pain and distress. The question of whether and how to intervene in wild animal suffering is genuinely difficult, but the first step is acknowledging its scale and moral relevance.