Going to the zoo/aquarium as an "ethical detective"
Observational questions
- Did you witness pleasure/happiness? (Balcombe)
- Did you witness pain/distress? (Singer, Yong, Johanssen)
- Did the animals seem to need more liberty instrumentally -- i.e. to meet their needs? Does their captivity seem to reduce their wellbeing? (Gruen)
- Did the animals have wild dignity? Did they have a little? A lot? (Gruen)
- Definition: wild animals have "wild dignity" to the extent that they have their own lives, live in their own world, and possess a kind of sovereignty.
- Are zoos just fundamentally violating the most basic rights of animals? What are these rights? (Regan)
- Are captive wild animals better off than animals in the wild in any way? Are they avoiding "vast suffering"? (Johanssen)
- Are zoos using captive animals to benefit animals in the wild? What conservation claims do they make? Is it OK to use animals this way? (Regan, Kant)
- Do the animals need more liberty intrinsically -- i.e. because liberty is fundamentally good for animals? (Gruen)