Livestock guardian animals including dogs, donkeys, and llamas are used to protect flocks from predators, offering a welfare-positive alternative to lethal predator control. Their own welfare needs require appropriate care within working roles.
Livestock guardian animals represent a welfare-positive intervention that protects both livestock and wildlife simultaneously: sheep are protected from predation without killing predators, and wolves, coyotes, and foxes are deterred rather than shot or poisoned. But the welfare of guardian animals themselves is sometimes neglected in the focus on the protection function they provide. A guardian dog working in isolation without appropriate shelter, veterinary care, or human contact can develop welfare problems that also undermine its protective function. Guardian donkeys placed singly without equine company experience the social isolation that is inappropriate for a highly social species. Welfare-positive guardian animal programmes ensure that working animals receive appropriate care alongside their working role, creating a system that is genuinely positive for livestock, predators, and guardian animals simultaneously.