Animals, like humans, suffer and die from natural causes. This is particularly true of animals living in the wild, given their high exposure to, and low capacity to cope with, harmful natural processes. Most wild animals likely have short lives, full of suffering, usually ending in terrible deaths. This book argues that on the assumption that we have reasons to assist others in need, we should intervene in nature to prevent or reduce the harms wild animals suffer, provided that it is feasible and that the expected result is positive overall. It is of the utmost importance that academics from different disciplines as well as animal advocates begin to confront this issue. The more people are concerned with wild animal suffering, the more probable it is that safe and effective solutions to the plight of wild animals will be implemented in the future.
Author(s): Catia Faria
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
City: Cambridge; New York
Frontmatter
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Contents
Introduction: Helping Animals
1. Moral Considerability
1.1 Moral Considerability Explained
1.2 Nonhuman Well-Being
1.3 Equal Consideration
1.4 The Badness of Death
2. Speciesism
2.1 The Concept of Speciesism
2.2 Speciesism and Anthropocentrism
2.3 Personism
2.4 Conclusion
3. Wild Animal Suffering
3.1 Population Dynamics and Wild Animal Suffering
3.2 Natural Harms of Life in the Wild
3.3 A Minimal Case for Intervention
4. Perversity and Futility
4.1 Objections to Intervention: A Taxonomy
4.2 The Perversity Objection
4.3 The Futility Objection
5. Jeopardy
5.1 Holistic Objections
5.2 Biocentric Objections
5.3 The Appeal to the “Natural”
6. Relationality
6.1 Palmer’s Contextual Approach
6.2 Donaldson and Kymlicka’s Sovereignty Argument
7. Priority
7.1 The Exclusion Approach
7.2 The Deflation Approach
7.3 The Perfectionist Approach
7.4 Domesticated Animals First
8. Tractability
8.1 Tractability and Feasibility
8.2 Neglectedness
Conclusion
Backmatter
References
Index
