River dolphins — among the most endangered cetaceans — face threats from fishing bycatch, habitat destruction, and pollution. Their welfare needs and conservation challenges are distinct from marine dolphins.
River dolphin welfare involves both the suffering of individual animals and the ecological crisis of near-extinction affecting entire species. Bycatch deaths in gillnets cause drowning — a distressing death for air-breathing mammals — after potentially hours of entanglement struggle. Intentional killing for bait, which affects boto in Brazil, involves direct violence against animals capable of complex social behavior and emotional response. The population-level welfare implications of declining numbers are profound: river dolphins are highly social, and the loss of conspecifics reduces social group complexity and behavioral opportunities. River dolphins living in polluted, acoustically degraded, fragmented habitats experience chronic stress from environmental conditions that impair their ability to navigate, communicate, and find food.