Tasmanian devils face extinction from a contagious facial cancer, with captive assurance colonies and facial tumor disease resistance research providing conservation hope.
Devils dying from facial tumor disease experience prolonged suffering as tumors grow around the face preventing eating, causing starvation over weeks to months. This is a significant and widespread welfare harm in what remains a large wild population. Humane euthanasia of advanced-disease individuals reduces individual suffering. Vaccine development and tumor-resistant breeding programs aim to restore population viability without the ongoing welfare cost of the epidemic.