Wild Animal Ethics

2020 book by Kyle Johannsen

Wild Animal Ethics

First edition cover

Author| Kyle Johannsen
Language| English
Subjects| Animal ethics, environmental ethics, political philosophy, wild animal suffering
Genre| Philosophy
Publisher| Routledge

Publication date

| October 29, 2020
Publication place| United States
Media type| Hardcover, paperback, ebook
Pages| 112
ISBN| 978-0-429-29667-3
OCLC| 1159605676

Wild Animal Ethics: The Moral and Political Problem of Wild Animal Suffering is a 2020 book by the philosopher Kyle Johannsen. It examines whether humans, from a deontological perspective, have a duty to reduce wild animal suffering. He concludes that such a duty exists and recommends effective interventions that could be potentially undertaken to help these sentient individuals.

## Summary

[edit]

Johannsen starts by examining the question of what is good about nature. He puts forward a number of arguments for why wild animals generally do not live good lives, such as the dominance of reproductive strategies which mean that large numbers of offspring are born, of which the great majority experience suffering and die before reaching adulthood. He also highlights different forms of suffering that these sentient individuals experience including predation, weather conditions, starvation, stress, injury and parasitism. Johannsen then explores the value of naturalness and the popularity of a positive view of nature.

In the following two sections, Johannsen asserts that humans have a collective obligation to intervene in nature to reduce the suffering of wild animals and evaluates the risks associated with intervention. He then explores the concept of editing nature, using technologies such as CRISPR and gene drives. The final section investigates how intervention relates to animal rights advocacy.

## Reception

[edit]

### Symposium

[edit]

A symposium was held on the book in April 2021, hosted by Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law, and Ethics (APPLE) at Queens University, featuring commentaries by Nicolas Delon, Bob Fischer, Gary O'Brien, and Clare Palmer.[1] These were later published in the journal Philosophia.[2]

Nicolas Delon's commentary argues that the book largely overlooks the issues of agency and freedom. Despite this, he gives Johannsen credit for considering liberty as an issue and for favoring interventions which minimize infringements of liberty.[3]

Bob Fischer's commentary challenges Johannsen's claims on habitat destruction in two ways. The first questions his calculation of the quantity of animals that experience overall positive lives. The second aspect acknowledges Johannsen's perspective on the balance between lives with positive and negative outcomes, but refutes the notion that this leads to his desired conclusion due to separate justifications.[4]

O'Brien's commentary takes exception with Johanssen's assertion that the non-identity problem has no effect on the reasons to intervene in nature. He argues that large scale interventions in nature will, in turn, change the types of animals that will come into existence and, as a result, enable harms experienced by and inflicted by these individuals. In conclusion, he asserts that "by causing animals to exist, knowing that they will inflict and suffer harms, we become morally responsible for those harms."[5]

Palmer's commentary questions Johannsen's claim that naturalness, or wildness, is not intrinsically valuable and the assertion that the majority of wild animals have terrible lives. On the latter, Palmer asserts that more evidence is needed and for the former she contends that Johannsen mischaracterizes the significance of the value of wildness which could lead to conflicts with his suggested wide-scale interventions. She concludes that if he wants to gain democratic legitimacy for such interventions, he needs to give more serious attention to such conflicts.[6]

Johannsen responds to the commentaries in his paper "Defending Wild Animal Ethics". He defends his arguments regarding intrinsic value and valuing of harmful natural processes, rejecting the notion of intrinsic valuing. Johannsen evaluates intentional habitat destruction as a response to wild animal suffering, contending that it is unjustified within a moderate deontological framework. The article also examines the role of agency in wild animal wellbeing, its connection to exercise of agency, and its impact on quality of life. Furthermore, Johannsen addresses the concept of identity-affecting actions and the potential generation of secondary duties, extending considerations of rectificatory justice to interventions aimed at mitigating harm to wild animals.[2]

### Endorsements and reviews

[edit]

Jeff Sebo describes the book as "an excellent book that makes a powerful case for reducing wild animal suffering".[7] Jeff McMahan asserts that: "The suffering of animals in the wild is a serious moral issue, to which this book is a sensible, well-argued, and humane response.[7]

Elizabeth Mullineaux describes the book positively, asserting that it presents well-reasoned arguments that are accessible to readers regardless of their background in philosophy, ethics, or animal welfare and contending that the book offers a blend of agreeable insights and thought-provoking ideas, fostering a deeper understanding of wild animal suffering alleviation strategies and warranting a strong recommendation for readers interested in the subject.[8]

## Publication history

[edit]

The book was published as an ebook on October 29, 2020 by Routledge in New York.[9] It was released in hardcover and paperback formats the following day.[7]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Symposium on Kyle Johannsen's Wild Animal Ethics". APPLE. 2021-01-21. Retrieved 2021-09-30.
2. ^ a b Johannsen, Kyle (2021-09-27). "Defending Wild Animal Ethics". Philosophia. 50 (3): s11406–021–00424–5. doi:10.1007/s11406-021-00424-5. ISSN 0048-3893. S2CID 244216354.
3. ^ Delon, Nicolas (2021-09-27). "Wild Animal Ethics: Well-Being, Agency, and Freedom". Philosophia. 50 (3): 875–885\. doi:10.1007/s11406-021-00421-8. ISSN 1574-9274. S2CID 239078550.
4. ^ Fischer, Bob (2021-09-27). "Two Challenges to Johannsen on Habitat Destruction". Philosophia. 50 (3): 865–873\. doi:10.1007/s11406-021-00416-5. ISSN 1574-9274. S2CID 239111840.
5. ^ O’Brien, Gary David (2021-09-27). "Beneficence, Non-Identity, and Responsibility: How Identity-Affecting Interventions in Nature can Generate Secondary Moral Duties" (PDF). Philosophia. 50 (3): 887–898\. doi:10.1007/s11406-021-00419-2. ISSN 1574-9274. S2CID 244250376.
6. ^ Palmer, Clare (2021-09-27). "The Value of Wild Nature: Comments on Kyle Johannsen's Wild Animal Ethics". Philosophia. 50 (3): 853–863\. doi:10.1007/s11406-021-00418-3. ISSN 0048-3893. S2CID 239162410.
7. ^ a b c "Wild Animal Ethics: The Moral and Political Problem of Wild Animal Suffering". Routledge. Retrieved 2024-02-01.
8. ^ Mullineaux, Elizabeth (2023). "Wild Animal Ethics: The Moral and Political Problem of Wild Animal Suffering". The UFAW Journal - Animal Welfare. 32.
9. ^ Johannsen, Kyle (2020-10-29). Wild Animal Ethics: The Moral and Political Problem of Wild Animal Suffering (1 ed.). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780429296673. ISBN 978-0-429-29667-3.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Johannsen, Kyle (2021-09-27). "Précis of Wild Animal Ethics". Philosophia. 50 (3): s11406–021–00423–6. doi:10.1007/s11406-021-00423-6. ISSN 0048-3893. S2CID 244178679.
* Lepeltier, Thomas (July 2021). "Manipuler les animaux sauvages pour leur bien" [Handling wild animals for their own good]. Sciences Humanes (in French). 338.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website
* A chat with Kyle Johannsen, author of Wild Animal Ethics: The Moral and Political Problem of Wild Animal Suffering
* Reducing wild animal suffering with Kyle Johannsen \- Knowing Animals podcast
* Kyle Johannsen, "Wild Animal Ethics: The Moral and Political Problem of Wild Animal Suffering" (Routledge, 2020) \- New Books in Philosophy podcast

* v
* t
* e

Animal rights

Topics (overviews, concepts, issues, cases)

| Overviews|

* Movement
* History (Ancient world)
* Timeline
* Europe
* United States
* By country or territory
* Argentina
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* Anarchism
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* Christianity
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|

Concepts|

* Abolitionism
* Ahimsa
* Animal cognition
* Animal consciousness
* Animal–industrial complex
* Animal law
* Animal machine
* Animal protectionism
* Animal trial
* Animal welfare
* Animal-free agriculture
* Anthropocentrism
* Argument from marginal cases
* Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness
* New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness
* Carnism
* Equal consideration of interests
* Emotion in animals
* Ethics of eating meat
* Ethics of uncertain sentience
* Holocaust analogy
* Insects in ethics
* Intrinsic value
* Meat paradox
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* Moral circle expansion
* Nonviolence
* Nonkilling
* Open rescue
* Opposition to hunting
* Painism
* Personism
* Replaceability argument
* Sentientism
* Speciesism
* Total liberation
* Veganism
* Vegaphobia
* Vegetarianism

Issues|

| Animal
husbandry|

* Animal product
* Animal husbandry
* Battery cage
* Bile bear
* Chick culling
* Crocodiles
* CAFOs
* Cow-calf separation
* Feedback
* Fish
* Foam depopulation
* Fur
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* Insects
* Intensive
* Pigs
* Livestock
* Live export
* Poultry
* Wildlife
* Slaughter
* Slaughterhouse
* Ventilation shutdown
* Blood sport
* Badger-baiting
* Bear-baiting
* Boar-baiting
* Bull-baiting
* Donkey-baiting
* Duck-baiting
* Hog-baiting
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* Hyena-baiting
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|

Animal testing|

* History
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* Organizations
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* Green Scare (Operation Backfire)

Animal welfare|

* Abandoned pets
* Captivity
* Euthanasia (insects)
* Farmed insects
* Killing of animals
* Live food
* Pain
* Amphibians
* Cephalopods
* Crustaceans
* Fish
* Invertebrates
* Laboratory animals
* Sports

Fishing|

* Bait
* Commercial
* Farming
* Recreational

Wild animals|

* Culling
* Farming
* Hunting
* Techniques
* Coursing
* Spotlighting
* Trail hunting
* Trapping
* Treeing
* Trophy hunting
* Upland hunting
* Animals
* Alligators
* Bats
* Bears
* Birds
* Bison
* Boar
* Raccoons
* Deer
* Dolphins
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* Hares
* Jackals
* Lions
* Mink
* Petrels
* Quail
* Rabbit
* Rooks
* Seals
* Squirrels
* Tigers
* Turtles
* Waterfowl
* Wild birds
* Whales
* Wolves
* Management
* Predation problem
* Suffering
* Trade
* Primates
* Ivory
* Welfare

Cases|

* Brown Dog affair
* Cambridge University primates
* McLibel case
* Monkey selfie copyright dispute
* Pit of despair
* SHAC
* Silver Spring monkeys
* University of California, Riverside 1985 laboratory raid
* Unnecessary Fuss
* War of the currents

Studies|

* Animal ethics
* Anthrozoology
* Critical animal studies
* Ethology
* Vegan studies

Methodologies|

* Direct Action Everywhere
* Hunt sabotage

Observances|

* World Animal Day
* World Day for Farmed Animals
* World Day for the End of Speciesism
* World Day for Laboratory Animals
* World Day for the End of Fishing
* World Vegan Day
* World Vegetarian Day

Advocates (academics, writers, activists)

| Academics
and writers|

| Contemporary|

* Carol J. Adams
* Aysha Akhtar
* Kristin Andrews
* Marc Bekoff
* Steven Best
* Paola Cavalieri
* Stephen R. L. Clark
* Alasdair Cochrane
* J. M. Coetzee
* Alice Crary
* David DeGrazia
* Daniel Dombrowski
* Sue Donaldson
* Josephine Donovan
* Joan Dunayer
* Mylan Engel
* Catia Faria
* Lawrence Finsen
* Michael W. Fox
* Gary L. Francione
* Robert Garner
* Valéry Giroux
* Lori Gruen
* John Hadley
* Oscar Horta
* Christine Korsgaard
* Dale Jamieson
* Kyle Johannsen
* Melanie Joy
* Hilda Kean
* Will Kymlicka
* Renan Larue
* Thomas Lepeltier
* Andrew Linzey
* Clair Linzey
* Dan Lyons
* David Nibert
* Martha Nussbaum
* Clare Palmer
* Charles Patterson
* David Pearce
* Jessica Pierce
* Evelyn Pluhar
* Mark Rowlands
* Richard D. Ryder
* Steve F. Sapontzis
* Jeff Sebo
* Jérôme Segal
* Peter Singer
* Gary Steiner
* Cass Sunstein
* David Sztybel
* Michael Tye
* Tatjana Višak
* Paul Waldau
* Corey Lee Wrenn

|

Historical|

* Tom Beauchamp
* Jeremy Bentham
* David Renaud Boullier
* Stephen St. C. Bostock
* Brigid Brophy
* Peter Buchan
* Mona Caird
* Priscilla Cohn
* Sherry Colb
* Henry Crowe
* Herman Daggett
* Richard Dean
* Wilhelm Dietler
* William Hamilton Drummond
* Edward Payson Evans
* T. Forster
* John Galsworthy
* Thomas G. Gentry
* V. A. Holmes-Gore
* Arthur Helps
* John Hildrop
* John Zephaniah Holwell
* Francis Hutcheson
* Soame Jenyns
* Marie Jungius
* Karl Christian Friedrich Krause
* John Lawrence
* Charles R. Magel
* Jean Meslier
* Mary Midgley
* J. Howard Moore
* José Ferrater Mora
* Robert Morris
* Leonard Nelson
* Edward Nicholson
* Siobhan O'Sullivan
* John Oswald
* Rod Preece
* Humphrey Primatt
* James Rachels
* Tom Regan
* Joseph Ritson
* Nathaniel Peabody Rogers
* Bernard Rollin
* Henry Stephens Salt
* Arthur Schopenhauer
* Laurids Smith
* John Styles
* Thomas Tryon
* Gary Varner
* Johann Friedrich Ludwig Volckmann
* Mary Anne Warren
* Adam Gottlieb Weigen
* Johann Heinrich Winckler
* Steven M. Wise
* Jon Wynne-Tyson
* Voltaire
* Thomas Young

Activists|

| Contemporary|

* James Aspey
* Greg Avery
* Matt Ball
* Martin Balluch
* Carole Baskin
* Barbi Twins
* Brigitte Bardot
* Gene Baur
* Yves Bonnardel
* Joey Carbstrong
* Aymeric Caron
* Jake Conroy
* Rod Coronado
* Karen Dawn
* Chris DeRose
* John Feldmann
* Bruce Friedrich
* Juliet Gellatley
* Tal Gilboa
* Antoine Goetschel
* Mark Gold
* Brigitte Gothière
* Alex Hershaft
* Wayne Hsiung
* Charlotte Laws
* Ronnie Lee
* Howard Lyman
* Evanna Lynch
* Bill Maher
* Keith Mann
* Jim Mason
* Dan Mathews
* Joaquin Phoenix
* Jo-Anne McArthur
* Luísa Mell
* Virginia McKenna
* Morrissey
* Ingrid Newkirk
* Heather Nicholson
* Jack Norris
* Ric O'Barry
* David Olivier
* Alex Pacheco
* Craig Rosebraugh
* Jasmin Singer
* Kim Stallwood
* Lynda Stoner
* Marianne Thieme
* Darren Thurston
* Christine Townend
* Wendy Turner-Webster
* Jerry Vlasak
* Louise Wallis
* Ed Winters
* Gary Yourofsky
* That Vegan Teacher

|

Historical|

* Cleveland Amory
* Henry B. Amos
* Bob Barker
* Ernest Bell
* William Brown
* Edith Carrington
* Frances Power Cobbe
* Joan Court
* Karen Davis
* Royal Dixon
* Muriel Dowding
* Elizabeth Farians
* Emarel Freshel
* André Géraud
* Lewis Gompertz
* James Granger
* Barry Horne
* Marie Huot
* Lizzy Lind af Hageby
* Jessie Mackay
* Alfred Mansfield Mitchell
* J. Isaac Pengelly
* Norm Phelps
* Jill Phipps
* Maud Ingersoll Probasco
* Hans Ruesch
* Magnus Schwantje
* Nell Shipman
* Henry Spira
* Joseph Stratton
* Andrew Tyler
* Gretchen Wyler

Movement (groups, parties)

| Groups|

| Contemporary|

* American Anti-Vivisection Society
* Animal Aid
* Animal Ethics
* Animal Justice
* Animal Justice Project
* Animal Legal Defense Fund
* Animal Liberation
* Animal Liberation Front
* Animal Liberation Press Office
* Animal Liberation Victoria
* Animal Rights Militia
* Animal Rising
* AnimaNaturalis
* Anti-Vivisection Coalition
* Anonymous for the Voiceless
* Beauty Without Cruelty
* Born Free Foundation
* Centre for Animals and Social Justice
* Chinese Animal Protection Network
* Cruelty Free International
* Direct Action Everywhere
* Doctors Against Animal Experiments
* Equanimal
* Every Animal
* Farm Animal Rights Movement
* Faunalytics
* Great Ape Project
* Hunt Saboteurs Association
* In Defense of Animals
* Korea Animal Rights Advocates
* L214
* Last Chance for Animals
* Massachusetts Animal Rights Coalition
* Mercy for Animals
* Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics
* People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
* Revolutionary Cells – Animal Liberation Brigade
* Rise for Animals
* Sentience Politics
* Uncaged Campaigns
* United Activists for Animal Rights
* United Poultry Concerns
* UPF-Centre for Animal Ethics
* Viva!
* Voice for Animals Humane Society
* Voiceless

|

Historical|

* Canadian Anti-Vivisection Society
* Humanitarian League (1891–1919)
* Millennium Guild
* Order of the Golden Age
* Oxford Group

Parties|

* Animal Justice Party (Australia)
* Animal Politics EU (Europe)
* Animal Protection Party of Canada (Canada)
* Animal Justice Party of Finland (Finland)
* Animals' Party (Sweden)
* Animalist Movement (Italy)
* Animalist Party with the Environment (Spain)
* DierAnimal (Belgium)
* Human Environment Animal Protection Party (Germany)
* Italian Animalist Party (Italy)
* Party for the Animals (Netherlands)
* People Animals Nature (Portugal)
* V-Partei³ (Germany)

Activism|

* Animal Rights National Conference

Media (books, films, periodicals, albums)

| Books|

* On Abstinence from Eating Animals (3rd century)
* A Reasonable Plea for the Animal Creation (1746)
* A System of Moral Philosophy, in Three Books (1755)
* The Cry of Nature (1791)
* An Essay on Humanity to Animals (1798)
* An Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, as a Moral Duty (1802)
* Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)
* The Rights of Animals (1838)
* The Ethics of Diet (1883)
* A Plea for Vegetarianism and Other Essays (1886)
* Animals' Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress (1892)
* Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology (1897)
* Better-World Philosophy (1899)
* The Logic of Vegetarianism (1899)
* The Universal Kinship (1906)
* The New Ethics (1907)
* Animals, Men and Morals (1971)
* Animal Liberation (1975)
* The Case for Animal Rights (1983)
* Morals, Reason, and Animals (1987)
* Zoos and Animal Rights (1993)
* Animals, Property, and the Law (1995)
* The Lives of Animals (1999)
* Eternal Treblinka (2001)
* Do Animals Have Rights? (2005)
* Striking at the Roots (2008)
* An American Trilogy (2009)
* An Introduction to Animals and Political Theory (2010)
* Animal Rights Without Liberation (2012)
* Political Animals and Animal Politics (2014)
* Animal (De)liberation (2016)
* Beating Hearts: Abortion and Animal Rights (2016)
* Sentientist Politics (2018)
* Wild Animal Ethics (2020)
* Animal Ethics in the Wild (2022)
* Making a Stand for Animals (2022)
* Animal Rights Law (2023)
* The Moral Circle (2025)

|

Films|

* The Animals Film (1981)
* A Cow at My Table (1998)
* Shores of Silence (2000)
* The Witness (2000)
* Meet Your Meat (2002)
* Legally Blonde 2 (2003)
* The Meatrix (2003)
* Peaceable Kingdom (2004)
* Earthlings (2005)
* Behind the Mask (2006)
* Your Mommy Kills Animals (2007)
* Food, Inc. (2009)
* The Cove (2009)
* Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home (2009)
* Forks Over Knives (2011)
* Vegucated (2011)
* An Apology to Elephants (2013)
* Speciesism: The Movie (2013)
* The Ghosts in Our Machine (2013)
* Unlocking the Cage (2016)
* Land of Hope and Glory (2017)
* Carnage (2017)
* Okja (2017)
* Dominion (2018)
* Seaspiracy (2021)

Periodicals|

| Journals|

* Animal Sentience
* Between the Species
* Cahiers antispécistes
* Etica & Animali
* Journal of Animal Ethics
* Relations. Beyond Anthropocentrism
* The Animals' Defender

|

Magazines|

* Arkangel
* Bite Back
* Muutoksen kevät
* No Compromise
* Satya

Albums|

* Animal Liberation (1987)
* Tame Yourself (1991)
* Manifesto (2008)
* Salvation of Innocents (2014)
* Onward to Freedom (2014)

Fairs and exhibitions|

* Holocaust on your Plate (2003)

* Category ( 138 )

* v
* t
* e

Wild animal suffering

Concepts|

* Animal ethics
* Ecology of fear
* Predation problem
* Relationship between animal ethics and environmental ethics
* Speciesism
* Welfare biology
* Wild animal welfare

Interventions|

* Contraception
* Rehabilitation
* Vaccination

Media|

* Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)
* The Universal Kinship (1906)
* Morals, Reason, and Animals (1987)
* Nature Red in Tooth and Claw (2008)
* "The Meat Eaters" (2010)
* Sentientist Politics (2019)
* Wild Animal Ethics (2020)
* Animal Ethics in the Wild (2022)
* Making a Stand for Animals (2022)

Organizations|

* Animal Ethics
* Wild Animal Initiative
* Wildlife Disaster Network

Writers|

| Contemporary|

* Elisa Aaltola
* Jacy Reese Anthis
* Yves Bonnardel
* J. Baird Callicott
* Stephen R. L. Clark
* Richard Dawkins
* Sue Donaldson
* Catia Faria
* Oscar Horta
* Kyle Johannsen
* Will Kymlicka
* Tobias Leenaert
* Thomas Lepeltier
* William MacAskill
* Jeff McMahan
* Ole Martin Moen
* Arne Næss
* Steven Nadler
* Yew-Kwang Ng
* Martha Nussbaum
* David Olivier
* Clare Palmer
* David Pearce
* Holmes Rolston III
* Steve F. Sapontzis
* Jeff Sebo
* Peter Singer
* Brian Tomasik
* Peter Vallentyne

|

Historical|

* Charles Darwin
* Erasmus Darwin
* Lewis Gompertz
* William Paley
* J. Howard Moore
* Tom Regan
* Alexander Skutch

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