Publications in English on the suffering of animals in the wild and the ways to help them

The suffering and death of animals in nature is an important question in animal ethics. This is a list with several papers and books that have addressed this question. Some of them are in favor of aiding animals in need of help in the wild, while others reject that we should do anything for them. I’ll try to update this list every now and then as new works are published. I hope this will be useful to those interested in this issue.

Publications in English on wild animal suffering and intervention

Clarifications on “What Is Speciesism?”

In a recent post in Animal Rights Zone, Paul Hansen has presented several objections to the account of speciesism I present in my paper “What Is Speciesism?” (which can be found in the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 23 (3), 243-266 and can be read and downloaded here). [*]

I am honored by the attention that Hansen has given to my paper, and want to thank him for his challenging criticisms, which provides me with the opportunity of further clarifying the views expressed in the paper. I am also very thankful to Animal Rights Zone for providing a forum in which these issues can be discussed.

Hansen’s interesting  objections cover several issues, which I will examine and respond to in turn. First, I will examine those objections that are related to my examination of different moral positions. Second, I will examine the objections that have to do with definitions of the concepts I use.

You can also download these clarifications as a pdf file here.

80’s and 90’s numbers of Between the Species and Ethics and Animals available online

Good news for those interested in doing research in animal ethics. The print editions of the journal Between the Species, which appeared between 1985 and 1996, are now available online, hosted by California Polytechnic State University (and thanks to the work of the journal’s current editor, Joe Lynch). You can download them from here: Between the Species

Moreover, they have also uploaded the issues of the journal which anteceded Between the Species, that is, Ethics and Animals, published between 1980 and 1984.  As far as I know, that was the first journal ever published on ethics and animals (so the journal’s name is certainly germane). You can download them from here: Ethics and Animals

What Is Speciesism?

I recently got a paper on the concept of speciesism published in the The Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. The journal’s final version of the paper is here. The paper tries to clarify in some detail what is speciesism, as well as to classify the different ways in which it is defended and to distinguish it from other concepts related to it.

You can download the paper here:

What Is Speciesism?

Questions of Priority and Interspecies Comparisons of Happiness

This paper tries to compare the current situation in which humans and those nonhuman animals raised to be eaten are. I’ve been working in different drafts of this paper for the last three years. Unfortunately, this is not going to be the last version of it yet. The data needs to be updated, and there are some other things in the paper that need to be fixed. But it seems that we’re getting close to it. I hope to finish it in a couple of months or so. So I’d be really grateful for any comments and criticisms of the paper. You can publish them here or send them to OHorta (a) dilemata.net

Questions of Priority and Interspecies Comparisons of Happiness

(Please note it’s a very heavy file—around 10MB—since it has lots of graphics. So it may take some time to download).

Animal Experimentation and Bias in Bioethics

This paper deals with the reasons why the current lack of consideration for nonhuman animals in the field of bioethics is unjustified.

Animal Experimentation and Bias in Bioethics (pdf)