The scale of wild animal suffering - from predation, disease, parasites and starvation - challenges the intuition that nature is benign and raises ethical questions about human responsibility.
Engaging seriously with wild animal suffering challenges comfortable assumptions about nature as an idyllic realm beyond ethical consideration. The reality is that for most wild animals, life involves chronic hunger, parasite burden, disease, fear of predation and often a painful death. Accepting this does not automatically imply that humans should intervene - the complexity and risk of large-scale intervention in ecosystems is significant. But it does suggest that dismissing wild animal welfare as irrelevant to ethics is unjustified. Supporting research into feasible, safe and effective interventions for wild animal welfare is a principled response to this ethical challenge.