Animals in conflict zones face extreme welfare risks from direct violence, abandonment, displacement, food shortage and infrastructure collapse, requiring specialist emergency response organisations.
Conflict creates welfare catastrophes for animals that are invisible alongside the scale of human suffering. Animals caught in conflict zones cannot be evacuated like humans, often cannot fend for themselves when owners flee, and suffer the same physical harms — starvation, injury, disease and death — in conditions of extreme vulnerability. Emergency response organisations face enormous challenges coordinating animal rescue alongside humanitarian operations. The welfare case for conflict zone animal response is both direct — reducing animal suffering — and indirect — supporting the mental health of human survivors who maintain emotional bonds with their animals.