The total scale of wild animal suffering from disease, predation, parasitism, and environmental stress vastly exceeds that of domesticated animals, with profound moral implications.
The scale of wild animal suffering dwarfs that of farmed and companion animals in absolute numbers, even if the intensity of individual suffering is sometimes lower. The sheer number of individual animals dying from starvation, predation wounds, parasitic infection, and disease creates an enormous aggregate welfare burden that has historically been overlooked because suffering occurs in natural contexts and at scales that are difficult to conceptualize. Wild animal welfare science represents a serious effort to apply rigorous welfare thinking to these populations and develop interventions that can improve welfare at scale without causing ecological harm. Accepting this challenge expands our moral circle to include the vast majority of sentient life on Earth.