Wild animal welfare isn’t often considered in local building and land use policies. Local policies related to the built environment often include measures to protect biodiversity, but not necessarily to improve wild animal welfare. The authors of this policy brief suggest that many existing policies can be improved upon to include measures that can benefit wild animals as well. They argue that because humans, animals, and the environment are interconnected, policies should be designed to improve the lives of all. 

Many wild animals live in cities where their habitats are changing due to human causes. The brief lists positive and negative conditions for wild animals living in cities, which can be used to evaluate the impact of policies. Some positive conditions include access to supplemental food sources and reduced predation, while negative conditions include human-animal conflict, disease, and habitat fragmentation.

The authors suggest several approaches to including wild animal welfare in policy development — in ongoing city planning, existing wildlife monitoring, establishing a city animal welfare office or official, developing an animal welfare planning process, and passing wild animal welfare ordinances. Wild animal welfare can be added to existing policies or considered when implementing new policies. The authors give examples of policies in practice in cities in the U.S. and around the world, demonstrating how existing policies to address climate change and biodiversity can add on specific elements to improve animal welfare. For example, existing initiatives to reduce extreme heat, such as enhancing green spaces and planting trees and maintaining established trees, can also benefit wild animals living in urban areas. Implementing new policies like building wildlife corridors could reduce habitat fragmentation, thereby facilitating safer movement, enhancing biodiversity, and reducing human-wild animal conflicts.

The authors group policies into two types: recommended policies and policies to consider. Recommended policies have the strongest evidence that they can improve animal welfare and are unlikely to have unintended consequences. Policies to consider need more research to better understand the impacts, positive or negative, when trade-offs between species of animals or between humans and animals are unknown or complex. They group policies into these six categories:

• Green Infrastructure (GI)
• Tree Canopy
• Ecosystems
• Buildings and Developments
• Lawns and Open Spaces
• Roads

Common themes across these categories include reducing noise, light, and air pollution; preserving or restoring sources of food, water, and shelter; and removing harmful obstacles. In the Buildings and Development category, one example is to change building code to require bird-friendly materials that reduce collisions. Examples within the Roads category are closing roads to motorized vehicles seasonally or at night or redesigning roads to decrease wild animal collisions and provide a safe migrating passage. 

The authors acknowledge that understanding of the impacts of policies on wild animal welfare is limited and that there are trade-offs involved when policies may benefit some wild animals but not others, or when funding is limited. Some policies may have unintended consequences, although the authors separate policies with the fewest known risks from the ones that need more research. There can also be legal hurdles like building codes. Still, this brief emphasizes the risk in taking no action and that it’s best to take steps now, study the policies’ effects, and improve over time. 

Advocates can find plenty of examples in this policy brief to bring to their advocacy work. These examples and evidence-based recommendations can be used when lobbying for policies that could enhance wild animal welfare. Policies already in practice can be a resource for other cities to implement and build upon, normalizing the idea of wild animals as stakeholders.