Wild animal suffering from predation represents an enormous source of pain that challenges traditional conservation frameworks and raises profound questions about human obligations to wild animals.
Wild animal suffering from predation is a genuine welfare concern of enormous scale that welfare science and ethics are only beginning to grapple with. Individual prey animals experiencing predatory attacks endure acute pain and fear. Most small animals in nature die young, often violently. While traditional conservation ethics values ecosystem processes over individual animal welfare, the welfare lens challenges this by recognising that individual suffering has moral significance regardless of its cause. Practical interventions to reduce wild animal suffering are in their infancy, and the ethical frameworks needed to guide them are underdeveloped. Engaging thoughtfully with this question is increasingly important for welfare advocates.