I find it hard to convince myself that acts that promote speciesist attitudes (harming animals and ignoring their interests) wilfully can cause the best consequences for animals in the long term. It is currently empirically hard to compare the suffering due to hobby fishing, large scale fishing, bottom trawling, where fishes are asphyxiated, pierced etc. with that of being eaten by predators/disease/other natural harms,. I think a better strategy is to raise concern about animal suffering (anti- speciesism) and the natural harms they suffer, while also researching what their welfare in the wild is and best ways to improve their wellbeing. Actively harming them in pursuit of saving them from wild harms seems to me sub optimal in terms of the overall consequences , at best we could promote sterilants or transform their ecosystemic factors to reduce suffering. It’s also important to consdier the flow through effects.
I find it hard to convince myself that acts that promote speciesist attitudes (harming animals and ignoring their interests) wilfully can cause the best consequences for animals in the long term. It is currently empirically hard to compare the suffering due to hobby fishing, large scale fishing, bottom trawling, where fishes are asphyxiated, pierced etc. with that of being eaten by predators/disease/other natural harms,. I think a better strategy is to raise concern about animal suffering (anti- speciesism) and the natural harms they suffer, while also researching what their welfare in the wild is and best ways to improve their wellbeing. Actively harming them in pursuit of saving them from wild harms seems to me sub optimal in terms of the overall consequences , at best we could promote sterilants or transform their ecosystemic factors to reduce suffering. It’s also important to consdier the flow through effects.
My intuition is to strongly agree with you! I’m mostly checking myself for blind spots.