Vultures provide irreplaceable ecosystem services by consuming carcasses, but face severe welfare threats from poisoning, veterinary drug contamination, and persecution that have driven multiple species toward extinction.
Vulture welfare and ecosystem function are inseparably linked. Individual vultures that consume diclofenac-contaminated carcasses die in acute renal failure — a rapid but painful process. Population-level declines have ecosystem consequences including carcass accumulation and feral dog population growth that increases human disease burden. The diclofenac crisis in South Asia demonstrated that a single veterinary drug, used at continental scale, can collapse multiple vulture species within a decade. Replacement with safe alternatives is technically straightforward; the challenge is achieving widespread adoption among livestock keepers.