A vision for wild animal welfare—lab-grown meat, population control via contraceptives—what successful wild animal welfare interventions could look like, hundreds of years from now
I think more speculative fiction about wild animal welfare would be great! Thank you!
Here’s a related thought, but ignore it if it deters you from writing something soon:
When I talk to people who are skeptical of or opposed to wild animal welfare work (context: I work at Wild Animal Initiative), they’re more likely to cite practical concerns about interventions (e.g., “reducing predator populations will cause harmful trophic cascades”) than they are to cite purely ethical disagreements (e.g., “we should never violate autonomy, even to improve welfare”). There’s a chance that speculative fiction could add to that problem, especially if multiple pieces repeat the same tropes. So my ideal medium-term goal would be a body of speculative fiction (ideally a single anthology) that portrays a wide range of futures to reflect the huge uncertainty we currently have about what the biggest problems are and how to solve them.
If it’s interesting and motivating for you, perhaps you could imagine your post as an early version of one of the pieces in that anthology. But if adding considerations slows you down, ignore this; anything you write will probably be helpful.
A vision for wild animal welfare—lab-grown meat, population control via contraceptives—what successful wild animal welfare interventions could look like, hundreds of years from now
I think more speculative fiction about wild animal welfare would be great! Thank you!
Here’s a related thought, but ignore it if it deters you from writing something soon:
When I talk to people who are skeptical of or opposed to wild animal welfare work (context: I work at Wild Animal Initiative), they’re more likely to cite practical concerns about interventions (e.g., “reducing predator populations will cause harmful trophic cascades”) than they are to cite purely ethical disagreements (e.g., “we should never violate autonomy, even to improve welfare”). There’s a chance that speculative fiction could add to that problem, especially if multiple pieces repeat the same tropes. So my ideal medium-term goal would be a body of speculative fiction (ideally a single anthology) that portrays a wide range of futures to reflect the huge uncertainty we currently have about what the biggest problems are and how to solve them.
If it’s interesting and motivating for you, perhaps you could imagine your post as an early version of one of the pieces in that anthology. But if adding considerations slows you down, ignore this; anything you write will probably be helpful.