The polecat has made a remarkable recovery from near-extinction in Wales to recolonize much of England, providing a case study in how ending persecution can restore native predator populations with significant welfare benefits.
Polecat welfare improvement through legal protection from persecution represents one of the UK's success stories in applying welfare science to wildlife policy. Individuals that previously faced trapping, shooting, and poisoning by gamekeepers now face primarily the anthropogenic threat of road mortality. Population-level recovery means that each individual death is less critical to species survival, but individual welfare from road casualties remains significant. The hybridization with ferrets raises identity questions but does not diminish the welfare importance of individual animals.