Artikel

Het welzijn van wilde dieren

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Samenvatting

An increasing amount of empirical evidence suggests that many wild animals, including small animals and invertebrates such as bees, have a welfare, i.e. have conscious states with positive or negative valuation. Due to the high fertility reproduction strategy of most wild animal populations, most newborn animals have short lives probably dominated by negative experiences, followed by a premature, often painful death. This is an indication that there is a lot of animal suffering in nature. Wild animal welfare is valued by the subjects (the wild animals) themselves, and this is a reason for us (moral agents) to take wild animal welfare into consider ation. But the problem of wild animal suffering is largely neglected due to cognitive biases. A new scientific research discipline of welfare biology is needed to study safe and effective interventions to improve wild animal welfare.

Hoe citeren:

Bruers, S., (2023) “Het welzijn van wilde dieren”, Ethiek en Maatschappij 25(2), 19–38. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/em.94655