Fishing cats are wetland-specialist felids whose welfare is threatened by drainage, pollution, and hunting pressure across their South and Southeast Asian range.
Fishing cat welfare is fundamentally linked to wetland ecosystem health. Habitat loss forces fishing cats into agricultural landscapes where conflict with fishing communities creates persecution risk. The drainage and pollution of Asian wetlands eliminates prey fish and forces cats into suboptimal habitats with reduced foraging success. Community education programs demonstrating fishing cat ecological roles and economic value for pest control reduce retaliatory killing. Wetland conservation simultaneously addresses fishing cat welfare and broader ecosystem values including water regulation and fisheries productivity.