General: Thanks so much for mentioning wild animals! They make up such a large majority of animals that I think it’s a really good practice to allude to that part of the picture even when you don’t want to cover it in depth.
Dodging the question: There are many interventions that would only be beneficial if you knew whether animals in the affected population(s) had net-positive or net-negative lives on average. But I’ve had so many conversations with people who seem to think we can’t do anything until we answer that question. In fact, there are lots of things we can do. Anything that reduces suffering without changing population levels is worthwhile, because between two lives not worth living, I’d still prefer the one that has less pain.
Evolution: Here’s a great talk by my colleague that goes in depth into depth on fitness and happiness in the context of wild animal welfare. It’s totally consistent with the arguments you make on the subject. https://www.wildanimalinitiative.org/blog/what-is-fitness
Contraception: You’re right that wildlife contraception could be a great tool for humanely reducing populations, and that that would be in animals’ interest if those animals were living net-negative lives. I want to add that one of the reasons contraception has so much potential is you can also use it to reduce suffering even if animals are living net-positive lives. Here are two strategies you could use to improve net welfare without knowing the net value of animals’ experiences.
Strategy 1: Same population, less suffering. You could use contraception as an alternative to painful lethal methods of population control. For example, cities, farms, factories, etc. often manage rat populations with anticoagulant poisons that cause the animals to bleed out over hours or days. You could eliminate the need for that by using contraception (it’s not quite clear whether the tech is there yet, but it’s close—this is one of the things we [@Wild_Animal_Initiative] would like more funding to research). People would probably want to bring the population down as much as possible, but they might decide to keep it at the same level as it was when they were using poison, and you would still expect a net benefit to welfare.
Strategy 2: Optimal population density (see this white paper with neat charts). Assuming you think more good lives is a good thing, all else equal, in reality not all else is equal when a population grows. Many wild animal populations are constrained by resource (e.g. food) availability: the population grows and competition intensifies until deaths from competition (e.g. starvation) increase the total mortality rate to the point where it equals the birth rate. So by the time the population stabilizes, resource competition is intense, and quality of life is likely affected. Even if these animals were having good lives, it might be better for there to be slightly fewer of them if that meant they’d be having much better lives. And if it turns out the animals were having net-negative lives, then reducing their population would be good for the usual reasons.
Thanks for your comment Cameron and the work you’re doing! Wild animal suffering is an area that I think is highly important but I struggle to think very clearly about. That’s why I only mentioned it briefly. Thank you for elaborating further on this and linking some resources.
I strongly agree with your point about reducing suffering without affecting population size (significantly). As I wrote in reply to Mo’s comment, I think that welfare-improving interventions that do not have strong population effects seem more promising, if we are uncertain about the net value of affected lives (as I am).
A few thoughts related to wild animals
General: Thanks so much for mentioning wild animals! They make up such a large majority of animals that I think it’s a really good practice to allude to that part of the picture even when you don’t want to cover it in depth.
Dodging the question: There are many interventions that would only be beneficial if you knew whether animals in the affected population(s) had net-positive or net-negative lives on average. But I’ve had so many conversations with people who seem to think we can’t do anything until we answer that question. In fact, there are lots of things we can do. Anything that reduces suffering without changing population levels is worthwhile, because between two lives not worth living, I’d still prefer the one that has less pain.
Evolution: Here’s a great talk by my colleague that goes in depth into depth on fitness and happiness in the context of wild animal welfare. It’s totally consistent with the arguments you make on the subject. https://www.wildanimalinitiative.org/blog/what-is-fitness
Contraception: You’re right that wildlife contraception could be a great tool for humanely reducing populations, and that that would be in animals’ interest if those animals were living net-negative lives. I want to add that one of the reasons contraception has so much potential is you can also use it to reduce suffering even if animals are living net-positive lives. Here are two strategies you could use to improve net welfare without knowing the net value of animals’ experiences.
Strategy 1: Same population, less suffering. You could use contraception as an alternative to painful lethal methods of population control. For example, cities, farms, factories, etc. often manage rat populations with anticoagulant poisons that cause the animals to bleed out over hours or days. You could eliminate the need for that by using contraception (it’s not quite clear whether the tech is there yet, but it’s close—this is one of the things we [@Wild_Animal_Initiative] would like more funding to research). People would probably want to bring the population down as much as possible, but they might decide to keep it at the same level as it was when they were using poison, and you would still expect a net benefit to welfare.
Strategy 2: Optimal population density (see this white paper with neat charts). Assuming you think more good lives is a good thing, all else equal, in reality not all else is equal when a population grows. Many wild animal populations are constrained by resource (e.g. food) availability: the population grows and competition intensifies until deaths from competition (e.g. starvation) increase the total mortality rate to the point where it equals the birth rate. So by the time the population stabilizes, resource competition is intense, and quality of life is likely affected. Even if these animals were having good lives, it might be better for there to be slightly fewer of them if that meant they’d be having much better lives. And if it turns out the animals were having net-negative lives, then reducing their population would be good for the usual reasons.
Thanks for your comment Cameron and the work you’re doing! Wild animal suffering is an area that I think is highly important but I struggle to think very clearly about. That’s why I only mentioned it briefly. Thank you for elaborating further on this and linking some resources.
I strongly agree with your point about reducing suffering without affecting population size (significantly). As I wrote in reply to Mo’s comment, I think that welfare-improving interventions that do not have strong population effects seem more promising, if we are uncertain about the net value of affected lives (as I am).