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11.02.2020

Animal Entertainments: Zoos, Circuses, Sanctuaries


Lori Gruen, professor of philosophy at
Wesleyan University








Books by Gruen 

Next time: Philosophy Talk podcast featuring Gruen

Outline of main questions in this reading

Captivity vs. liberty

I. Do animals have an interest in liberty? Two types of liberty interests:

  1. instrumental interest in liberty: liberty is conducive to other goods.  
    • humans typically need liberty in order to obtain food, shelter, friends, satisfying activities, good health, etc. 
    • is liberty instrumentally valuable for animals too? 
  2. intrinsic interest in liberty: liberty is one of the goods constitutive of a good life
    • arguably, a human without liberty can't be living a wholly good life
    • is liberty intrinsically valuable for animals too? 
II.  Is an animal's interest in liberty violated in zoos, sanctuaries, and in our homes (pets)?

III.  What other ethical concepts are relevant to thinking about animal liberty and captivity?
  1. Kantian dignity
  2. political dignity
  3. animal dignity
  4. wild dignity

Examples of captivity

Farm animals, lab animals.  But there are worse elements, so we didn't focus on captivity.

Pets: cats, dogs, fish, octopus, hamsters, guinea pigs, etc. etc.



Forced labor of monkeys: Costco story

Zoos and Animal Sanctuaries--

Elephants at the Dallas Zoo 

Zoos and Liberty

  1. Instrumental interest in liberty: imagine an ideal zoo where all needs are met
  2. Intrinsic interest in liberty: do these animals have bad lives (to some degree) because they lack liberty? 

Gruen, p. 144 

What are the pre-conditions for having an intrinsic interest in liberty?

  1. Alasdair Cochrane's answer: autonomy, in the sense of an ability to forge your own conception of the good life and your own life plan. (p. 144-145) Animals don't have that. So zoos aren't necessarily bad.
  2. Gruen's answer: autonomy, in the sense of  simple self-rule--having your own desires, making your own choices (though not necessarily in a vacuum).  Animals do have that. So zoos violate their intrinsic interest in liberty

Gruen, p. 150 (also read next paragraph on p. 150-151)



Other relevant concepts

  1. In zoos and circuses , wild animals are denied "wild dignity"--this happens when we dominate them and "project our needs and tastes onto them"
  2. Other notions of dignity: Kantian dignity, political dignity, animal dignity


Pets/Companion animals

Are we violating the "wild dignity" of companion animals by keeping them as pets?

    1. Gary Francione's answer (p. 155)
    2. Gruen's answer--they've been domesticated for hundreds of years--this can be a relationship of mutuality
Sanctuaries