At the conclusion of a substantial essay examining the question of whether the controlled extinction of carnivorous species would be a good thing, philosophy professor Jeff McMahan cautiously concludes:
It would be good to prevent the vast suffering and countless violent deaths caused by predation. There is therefore one reason to think that it would be instrumentally good if predatory animal species were to become extinct and be replaced by new herbivorous species, provided that this could occur without ecological upheaval involving more harm than would be prevented by the end of predation. The claim that existing animal species are sacred or irreplaceable is subverted by the moral irrelevance of the criteria for individuating animal species. I am therefore inclined to embrace the heretical conclusion that we have reason to desire the extinction of all carnivorous species, and I await the usual fate of heretics when this article is opened to comment.
Comments are open, there and here at District TMV.
RELATED: Two from The Grist, The omnivore’s delight: One day, four meals, and 53 species; and Meat eating can be an environmentally friendly choice, on this Guardian piece from George Monbiot who once concluded that veganism “is the only ethical response to what is arguably the world’s most urgent social justice issue.” He’s changed his mind.
Image: Male Lion and Cub Chitwa South Africa Luca Galuzzi 2004, selected as a picture of the day on the English Wikipedia for September 6, 2007.