Humans live alongside animals of all kinds, and have a very complicated relationship with them. Do we owe anything to them?
The exact relationship we have with animals varies wildly depending on which ones we are talking about.
Some we have driven to extinction, or very near it. The once plentiful bison was overhunted, as was the passenger pigeon. The former, with protections, managed a population comeback after near extinction, but the latter was not so lucky.
Others have thrived living — willingly or not — alongside humans. Pets, like cats and dogs, have fared well. So have rats, which have lived in or near human civilizations since the introduction of agriculture.
As human populations have increased and spread out, we often inhabit land that used to be the home for various animals. Thus, you see odd videos of a moose walking down a street, or a bear entering a grocery store.
These interactions raise a question: what should the relationship be, between humans and animals? A predator could pose a danger to humans. People die each year in animal attacks. Animals can also spread disease, and it seems likely that the COVID pandemic started when a virus made the jump from bats to humans.
Of course, humans are animals too. And we are all part of a larger ecosystem, which has evolved over millions of years, with each species having a role to play. Changing or eliminating those roles can have significant impact on the web of life on the planet.
Beyond that, there is the ethical question: do animals deserve to be treated respectfully? And if the answer is yes, what does that look like? What happens when they inevitably come into conflict with humans?
Related questions: Do animals have rights? Does nature have rights? How are humans like other animals? How are they different? What do we owe the future?
I believe that most, if not all, animals are sentient beings, and because of that, they should be afforded certain rights. For instance, I support most of the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights (a non-binding treaty).
– Right to existence: All animals are born with the same right to exist and should be respected.
– No cruelty: No animal should be subjected to bad treatment or cruel actions.
– Freedom for wild animals: Wild animals have the right to live freely in their natural environment and reproduce.
– Natural life for domestic animals: Animals living in a domestic environment should live and grow according to their species’ natural rhythm.
– Right to life span: Companion animals have the right to their natural life span, and abandonment is cruel.
– Limited work for working animals: Working animals should not be worked to exhaustion and must have rest.
– Prohibition of experiments: Scientific or medical experiments that cause physical or mental pain are incompatible with animal rights.
– Ethical food production: Animals bred for food must be fed, transported, and killed without fear or pain.
– No entertainment: Animals should not be used for entertainment.
I wrote that I support most of these rights. I’m conflicted about using animals for entertainment. I don’t support circuses or zoos, but I do believe some domesticated animals can be trained to perform certain tricks and still thrive because of or despite it.
On another note, regarding ethical food production, I realize I’m a hypocrite here: I am a pescatarian — I eat fish occasionally and dairy daily. Still, I believe there should be significantly fewer farmed and fished animals, and that our eating habits should change accordingly. I think humans should eat much less meat — for health, ethical, and environmental reasons. And I don’t support factory farming.
It’s an important question. It’s phrased in terms of what we owe animals, but, ultimately, I think the question is: What should our relationship be with the other parts of the ecosystem in order to serve our mutual interest in a habitable environment?
We deluded ourselves into thinking we exist outside of and above the ecosphere as human society rapidly became urban, industrial, and digital. However, big cities, climate-controlled homes, and the cloud don’t protect us from a potential collapse in the population of animal and plant species that provide the foundation for all life on Earth.
I’ve often made the argument in advocating for people in crisis that you can ask decisionmakers to respond in one of two ways. Either with pity (“isn’t it terrible what happened to them”) or with empathy (“it’s happening to them but it could have happened to me”). I think if we recognize that all animal and plant life not only has an equal right to a place in the world but also plays an important interdependent role in sustaining the ecosystem we all need, then every other decision flows logically from there.