Vulture populations across Africa and Asia are collapsing due to deliberate and accidental poisoning, with each poisoning event killing dozens or hundreds of individuals and causing prolonged suffering before death.
Vulture poisoning events cause mass mortality involving enormous individual suffering. Vultures consuming poisoned carcasses experience convulsions, paralysis and organ failure over periods of hours — a painful death replicated across hundreds of individuals simultaneously at a single event. The deliberate targeting of vultures by poachers represents an intentional cruelty with cascading ecosystem consequences, as vultures are critical scavengers that remove disease vectors from landscapes. The accidental poisoning by veterinary diclofenac — which devastated Asian vulture populations and is now spreading in Africa — is particularly tragic as it results from the legitimate treatment of livestock. Vulture-safe veterinary drug campaigns and poisoning prosecution represent the most direct welfare interventions available.