Executive summary: The author argues that rewilding initiatives in the United Kingdom, while framed as ecological restoration, systematically disregard the welfare of sentient animals, revealing a deep and unresolved conflict between environmentalist priorities and anti-speciesist ethics.
Key points:
The author describes rewilding as a flexible and contested concept that has evolved from biodiversity-focused ecological restoration but is widely misinterpreted in practice and policy.
Beaver translocation in Scotland has reduced lethal control and represents a partial welfare improvement, but the author argues these benefits are incidental to ecosystem and human-centered goals rather than a genuine prioritization of beaver interests.
Proposals to reintroduce lynx in Scotland illustrate how rewilding would intentionally expand predation, causing fear, injury, and death to large numbers of prey animals while ignoring these welfare impacts.
The author claims that translocated lynxes themselves would experience significant stress, trauma, and adjustment difficulties due to capture, transport, and relocation.
Rewilding is argued to expand landscapes where wild animal suffering is endemic, including high juvenile mortality, starvation, disease, and chronic stress driven by population dynamics and natural selection.
The author concludes that rewilding highlights a fundamental divergence between environmentalism, which values animals instrumentally within ecosystems, and anti-speciesism, which prioritizes the interests and suffering of individual sentient beings.
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Executive summary: The author argues that rewilding initiatives in the United Kingdom, while framed as ecological restoration, systematically disregard the welfare of sentient animals, revealing a deep and unresolved conflict between environmentalist priorities and anti-speciesist ethics.
Key points:
The author describes rewilding as a flexible and contested concept that has evolved from biodiversity-focused ecological restoration but is widely misinterpreted in practice and policy.
Beaver translocation in Scotland has reduced lethal control and represents a partial welfare improvement, but the author argues these benefits are incidental to ecosystem and human-centered goals rather than a genuine prioritization of beaver interests.
Proposals to reintroduce lynx in Scotland illustrate how rewilding would intentionally expand predation, causing fear, injury, and death to large numbers of prey animals while ignoring these welfare impacts.
The author claims that translocated lynxes themselves would experience significant stress, trauma, and adjustment difficulties due to capture, transport, and relocation.
Rewilding is argued to expand landscapes where wild animal suffering is endemic, including high juvenile mortality, starvation, disease, and chronic stress driven by population dynamics and natural selection.
The author concludes that rewilding highlights a fundamental divergence between environmentalism, which values animals instrumentally within ecosystems, and anti-speciesism, which prioritizes the interests and suffering of individual sentient beings.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.