In the wild

Most landscapes or habitats  - even those that seem fairly natural, such as woodlands and seashores - are now dominated by human activity. These activities can cause suffering or affect wild animals in many different ways, either as a direct result or an unintended consequence - or a bit of both. 

Some examples:

• Pest control
  For example, poisoning rats could cause suffering to them or result in poisoning to birds of prey feeding on the dead animals.
   
• Disease control
  There are government proposals to kill badgers because they are involved in spreading TB to cattle.
   
• Fishing
  The type of net and how it is used may result in accidental capture of dolphins, porpoises and small whales - see the bycatch indicator in the wildlife section of our 2008 'The Welfare State' report (PDF 798KB).  (For the full report, visit www.animalwelfarefootprint.com.)
   
• Angling
  Discarded tackle risks entangling swans and other waterfowl - see the fishing litter indicator in the wildlife section of our 2008 'The Welfare State' report (PDF 798KB).
   
• Driving vehicles
  Many thousands of wild animals, including deer, are killed in collisions  - see our fact sheet about Traffic accidents involving deer (PDF 72.1KB).
   
• Introducing non-native species
  This may result in control measures to prevent damage to crops or native species - see the Non-native Species Secretariat for more information.
   
• Shooting of deer
  Might result in wounding or leave dependent young to starve.
   
• Feeding wild birds
  May help them survive but there’s a risk of spreading diseases.

Find out more

In this section you can find more detail on different types of animals, laws and welfare issues surrounding them, what we’re doing and ways you can help. There’s also information on topics such as feeding garden birds.

Please bear with us . . . this section is still under construction and we’ll be adding more pages as soon as we can!