Life in the wild

Misc

• Field trips
• will return exams today

Kyle Johansson, "Humanitarian Assistance for Wild Animals"

Major claims in this article--

(1) - (6): wild animals have bad lives

(7) - (11): what we should do about it

We will discuss (1) - (6) today

(1) Humanitarian assistance -- does not mean rescuing koala bears from bush fires or saving raccoons and deer after a hurricane. 

"Severe suffering is pervasive in nature. It's built into natural proccesses, and thus it's the norm rather than the exception." (p. 33)

(2) Evolution isn't necessarily beneficial to individual animals -- it's beneficial to their genes 

• peacocks encumbered by their tails
• male songbirds attract predators

(3) A common reproductive strategy involves lots of offspring, lots of mortality

r-strategists--huge number of offspring, little parental investment, most offspring die young

1. examples of r-strategists that are mammals
2. huge numbers killed by predators

K-strategists -- smaller number of offspring, more parental investment, fewer die young (note that a lot do still die young)

• humans -- 2 per couple, one per partner -- replacement rate
• eagles -- each female lays 2-3 eggs per year for 20 years
• leopards--each female leopard has 2-3 cubs every 15 mo-2 years, over 10 years.  
• puffins--each female puffin has one chick every year over 30 years

(4) Predation is another cause of wild animal suffering

1. 2/3 of wild animals eat other animals
2. Prey die miserable deaths

(5) Mature wild animals also suffer due to --

• "disease, parasites, predator-induced stress, predator-caused injuries, and extreme temperatures" (p. 34)
• He doesn't discuss, but we could also add:  competition within species

• Male lions, cheetahs, leopards kill cubs
• Wolf packs--fighting for dominance, only alpha male and female mate
• Ungulates (antelopes, caribou, etc.) fight mates
• Seals, baboons

(6) On the whole ...

Some ethicists have recently speculated that "the amount of suffering in nature probably exceeds the amount of enjoyment in it. They may or may not be right about that, but at the very least we can say that most individual wild animals live bad lives." (p. 34)

(7)  Philanthropists tend to overlook wild animal suffering

• they focus on global poverty
• they focus on factory farming (Effective Altruism website)
• but "wild animals are far more numerous" (p. 36)

(8) One type of large-scale assistance is vaccinating animals

(9) But genetic intervention would be the most effective intervention

• change carnivores into herbivores
• change r-strategists into K-strategists
• alter r-strategists so offspring don't suffer as much

(10)  Objections to gene editing are weak

1. there's nothing especially good about naturalness when it conflicts with wellbeing (p. 36)
2. gene editing doesn't have to be coercive
3. studying gene editing will involve some animal experimentation

(11) For now...

• we should hold off on gene-editing
• focus on vaccination programs
• study and build support for gene editing

_________________________

Today let's discuss whether wild animals really do have bad lives

ANIMAL WELLBEING TOOLKIT

1. Browning and Birch -- sentience in animals
2. Zangwill -- we should not forget to focus on animal pleasure (in addition to pain)
3. Abbate -- sophisticated hedonism -- physiological pleasure and pain matter, but ethological pleasure especially matters (pleasure from innate behaviors)
4. Nussbaum -- a well-off animal can develop 10 capabilities -- they all matter, not just pleasure/pain
1. Life
2. Bodily health
3. Bodily integrity
4. Senses, imagination, and thought
5. Emotions
6. Practical reason -- making key choices
7. Affiliation
8. Other species
9. Play
10. Control over one's environment

LIFE IN THE WILD

 

RABBITS