Ethics
and Killing Wildlife
Within
the last 25 years two radical ideas have become significant,
both politically and philosophically, animal liberation and
biocentrism (concern for the environment).Both question the
right of our species to assume that our interests must always
prevail.
We
have to remember for virtually all of the history of western
civilisation, the right of human beings to trample over all
the species on this planet, and over nature itself, has been
taken for granted.
Let
us consider whether it is ethically justifiable to kill wild
animals, not as a necessity for survival, but in order to profit
from their meat and skins... Those who exploit kangaroos, for
example, seek to show that the “resource” is being
“harvested” on a “sustainable” basis. Kangaroos,
then have value only if they can provide commercial profit and
the exploiters want to ensure that the kangaroos survive so
that they can continue to be exploited.
Those
who see kangaroos only as a resource overlook the ethical aspects
of how we are treating other sentient beings. Several hundred
thousand kangaroos die inhumanely every year. There is also
the suffering of the joeys, who are orphaned when their mothers
are shot and upon whom they depend for their survival. In the
light of this suffering, whatever views one may have about the
rights and wrongs of eating other animals, it should not be
too difficult to see that there are special reasons for not
eating kangaroos or supporting the kangaroo trade in any other
way.
The
cruelty and suffering that we have already seen in the native
animal industries means that this is no longer an experiment.
Hundreds of thousands of kangaroos each year are not killed humanely,
emu chicks in Western Australia are ‘de-toed’ without
anaesthesia to reduce risks to handlers, and possums in Tasmania
are trapped, transported and killed over a period that now has
blown out to anything up to 48 hours. Such trades are ethically
and environmentally flawed and are opposed by animal welfare organisations
around the world.
Professor
Peter Singer
Appointed:
1999 Chair De Camp Professorship
of Bioethics, University Centre for Human Values
Princeton University, USA
