The welfare costs of rhino poaching driven by horn trade and the conservation efforts working to protect wild populations.
Rhino poaching creates welfare costs across multiple dimensions: the acute suffering of animals targeted for horn, the welfare implications of living in a defended landscape with constant security presence, and the welfare costs of anti-poaching interventions like dehorning. Poaching kills typically involve gunshot wounds that may not be immediately fatal, translucent moments of dying or escaping injured before death. Anti-poaching measures like dehorning, while welfare-impactful themselves through the anesthesia and procedure required, prevent the worse welfare outcome of death by poaching if successful. The most impactful welfare and conservation intervention is demand reduction in consumer markets — reducing horn value eliminates the economic incentive driving poaching more sustainably than protection alone. Consumer campaigns combined with legal prosecution of trafficking networks represent the dual approach with greatest potential.