African vultures are being poisoned at catastrophic rates — primarily from poisoned carcasses — causing population crashes and prolonged suffering for thousands of birds annually.
Vulture poisoning causes an agonising death. Organophosphate poisoning produces acetylcholinesterase inhibition, leading to convulsions, hypersalivation, respiratory distress, and prolonged suffering before death. Mass poisoning events kill birds that gathered at a carcass — birds in good health whose only mistake was responding to their ecological role. The scale of mortality is staggering: individual events kill hundreds of birds; cumulative annual losses run to thousands. The welfare harm combines acute suffering at death with population-level consequences that ultimately lead to more widespread ecosystem disruption. Unlike many wildlife welfare problems, poisoning is a direct and intentional human act whose perpetrators can potentially be held legally accountable.