Wildlife
The RSPCA’s concern about wild animals is based on how they are treated and whether human activity causes unnecessary suffering - rather than how many of a species there are.
This means our perspective is animal welfare rather than conservation of endangered species. Welfare and conservation often overlap though. For example, trapping may cause suffering but if it is indiscriminate it could also affect rare species.
What are ‘wild animals’?
Broadly speaking, animals in their natural state that have not been domesticated are considered ‘wild’.
For our purposes, this includes non-domestic animals in captivity, whether kept as pets or for other reasons including entertainment, and those living free in the environment. We cover a huge number of species and individual animals – ranging from badgers in your garden to birds nesting on sea cliffs to pet iguanas and zoo elephants!
Improving the welfare of wild animals
We aim to improve the welfare of wild animals by:
- Stopping the use of wild animals in circuses
- Making it socially unacceptable to hunt and kill any wild animals in the name of sport
- Ensuring any use of performing animals in the UK follows appropriate guidelines
- Stopping the keeping of exotic animals as pets in unsuitable conditions.
These are just four of our goals.
Find out more about our work to help wild animals.
- Wildlife science
Our wildlife team promote thoughtful and humane interactions between people and wild animals.
- Exotic pets
Information on keeping a non-domestic animal as a pet, plus care sheets for more common species.