The ethics of wild animal suffering

Authors

  • Ole Martin Moen UiO, Oslo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5324/eip.v10i1.1972

Keywords:

animal ethics, anthropocentrism, duties of assistance, suffering, wildlife

Abstract

Animal ethics has received a lot of attention over the last four decades. Its focus, however, has almost exclusively been on the welfare of captive animals, ignoring the vast majority of animals: those living in the wild. I suggest that this one-sided focus is unwarranted. On the empirical side, I argue that wild animals overwhelmingly outnumber captive animals, and that billions of wild animals are likely to have lives that are even more painful and distressing than those of their captive counterparts. On the normative side, I argue that as long as we have duties of assistance towards humans suffering from natural causes, and we reject anthropocentrism, we also have duties of assistance towards animals suffering in the wild.

Article first published online: 22 MARCH 2016

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Author Biography

Ole Martin Moen, UiO, Oslo

Ole Martin Moen, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow in Philosophy, Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature, University of Oslo Email: o.m.moen@ifikk.uio.no Research area: ethics, especially thorny issues in applied ethics that have traditionally received little attention from philosophers
Public Domain and Democracy in the Digital Age

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Published

2016-05-09

How to Cite

Moen, O. M. (2016). The ethics of wild animal suffering. Etikk I Praksis - Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics, 10(1), 91-104. https://doi.org/10.5324/eip.v10i1.1972

Issue

No. 1 (2016)

Section

Åpen del - Open section

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