Pigs vs. Boars. The Ethics of Assisting Domesticated and Wild Animals

Abstract

Among animal ethicists who accept that we have positive duties toward wild animals, there are some who maintain that these duties are considerably weaker than the duties we have toward domesticated animals, other things being equal. In this article I intend to examine whether this claim is true. To do this, I consider various factors that are often thought to render our duties to assist domesticated animals stronger than our duties to assist wild animals. My discussion will show that these factors fail to make our duties toward domesticated animals any stronger than our duties toward wild animals.

Keywords

• animal ethics
• domesticated animals
• domestication
• duties of assistance
• laissez-faire intuition
• partiality
• special relationships
• vulnerability and dependence
• wild animals
• wild animal suffering.