I think animal advocates are pretty sincere even though virtually none of them ever care about wild animals.
Guilty as charged. I sometimes think whether I should, but so far I’ve always come to the conclusion that either there’s a major moral difference (e.g. our direct responsibility for the suffering, or the moral importance of nature), or that interventions to meaningfully change wild animal suffering are bound to have devastating side effects.
I’m not convinced of the act omission distinction, but I’m not ready to throw it away.
I think one argument about wild animal suffering that might be true or might be rationalization is that there’s nothing we can do for now- but you can promote general compassion to animals through activism or veganism or something.
That’s a better point. Also,
Guilty as charged. I sometimes think whether I should, but so far I’ve always come to the conclusion that either there’s a major moral difference (e.g. our direct responsibility for the suffering, or the moral importance of nature), or that interventions to meaningfully change wild animal suffering are bound to have devastating side effects.
I’m not convinced of the act omission distinction, but I’m not ready to throw it away.
I think one argument about wild animal suffering that might be true or might be rationalization is that there’s nothing we can do for now- but you can promote general compassion to animals through activism or veganism or something.