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Timeline of wild-animal suffering

21,099 bytes added, 03:34, 30 April 2020
Full timeline
==Big picture==
{| class="sortable wikitable"
! Year/period !! Key developments!! Key people !! Key organizations
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| 1800s–1970 pre-1970 || Wild-animal suffering is occasionally mentioned by philosophers as an example of the amorality of nature. In general, there is little discussion of whether humans should intervene to improve the situation.|| Leonardo da Vinci, David Hume, Lewis Gompertz, Giacomo Leopardi, Arthur Schopenhauer, Charles Darwin, John Stuart Mill, J. Howard Moore ||
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| 1970–2000 1970–2004 || After the emergence of the contemporary animal rights/welfare movement, wild-animal suffering is discussed by animal rights philosophers and their critics. The critics consider intervention in nature a reductio ad absurdum of animal rights, while some animal rights authors take it to be a serious moral issue.Most discussion takes place through journals, and discussion participants are mostly academics || Peter Singer, David Olivier, Yew Kwang-Ng, David Pearce (early emergence) ||
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| 2000–present 2005–2012 || Online communities dedicated to utilitarian ethics and effective altruism discuss During this period, interest in wild-animal suffering blossoms with the help of the Internet. Prolific and passionate individuals such as Brian Tomasik, David Pearce, and Oscar Horta play a serious issue. Activists begin forming organizations dedicated to WAS research leading role in creating content and outreachbirthing online communities. The academic moral philosophy community also continues debating the issue.|| Brian Tomasik, David Pearce, Oscar Horta ||
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| 2013–2016 || Organizations begin to form that focus on wild-animal suffering, research, and advocacy (as either a primary or secondary focus). Publications reated to wild animals come from a mix of individuals and organizations. Some organizations use prizes to incentivize work on wild-animal suffering, with mixed results. The nascent effective altruism community exposes more people to wild-animal suffering earlier on in their lives || Brian Tomasik, Simon Knutsson, Jacy Reese, Magnus Vinding, Michael Dickens || Animal Ethics, Foundational Research Institute, Animal Charity Evaluators, Sentience Politics
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| 2017–2020 || In this era, a large share of the production of research related to wild-animal suffering is by individuals as part of their work for organizations. Key organizations that sponsor a large number of publications are: Utility Farm, Wild-Animal Suffering Research (the two would later merge into the Wild Animal Initiative), Animal Ethics, Sentience Institute, and (starting late 2018) Rethink Priorities. The ecosystem is sustained by grant money from the Effective Altruism Animal Welfare Fund, Animal Charity Evaluators' Animal Advocacy Research Fund, and individual donors. || Brian Tomasik, Lewis Bollard, Persis Eskander, Georgia Ray, Ozy Brennan, Abraham Rowe, Oscar Horta || Utility Farm, Wild-Animal Suffering Research (the two would later merge into the Wild Animal Initiative), Animal Ethics, Sentience Institute, Rethink Priorities, Animal Charity Evaluators
|}
{| class="sortable wikitable"
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! People involved !! Details
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| 1487–1501 || || Publication || {{w|Leonardo da Vinci}} || Leonardo da Vinci in his notebooks laments the suffering experienced by wild animals due to predation and reproduction.<ref>{{Cite book|last=da Vinci|first=Leonardo|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5000|title=The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete|date=2004-01-01|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=1888|pages=|at=folio 1219|language=English|translator-last=Richter|translator-first=Jean Paul|quote=Why did nature not ordain that one animal should not live by the death of another? Nature, being inconstant and taking pleasure in creating and making constantly new lives and forms, because she knows that her terrestrial materials become thereby augmented, is more ready and more swift in her creating, than time in his destruction; and so she has ordained that many animals shall be food for others. Nay, this not satisfying her desire, to the same end she frequently sends forth certain poisonous and pestilential vapours upon the vast increase and congregation of animals; and most of all upon men, who increase vastly because other animals do not feed upon them; and, the causes being removed, the effects would not follow. This earth therefore seeks to lose its life, desiring only continual reproduction; and as, by the argument you bring forward and demonstrate, like effects always follow like causes, animals are the image of the world.}}</ref>
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| 1779 || || Publication || {{w|David Hume}} || David Hume in his posthumous work ''{{w|Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion}}'' makes reference to the antagonism experienced and inflicted by wild animals upon each other.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hume|first=David|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4583|title=Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion|date=|publisher=|year=1779|isbn=|location=|pages=|language=English|quote=Observe [...] the curious artifices of nature, in order to embitter the life of every living being. The stronger prey upon the weaker, and keep them in perpetual terror and anxiety. The weaker too, in their turn, often prey upon the stronger, and vex and molest them without relaxation. Consider that innumerable race of insects, which either are bred on the body of each animal, or flying about infix their stings in him. These insects have others still less than themselves, which torment them. And thus on each hand, before and behind, above and below, every animal is surrounded with enemies, which incessantly seek his misery and destruction.}}</ref>
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| 1821 || || Publication || {{w|Joseph de Maistre}} || Joseph de Maistre in his ''Saint Petersburg Dialogues'', describes the extent of suffering and violent deaths experienced by animals in the wild.<ref>{{Cite book|last=de Maistre|first=Joseph|url=http://maistre.uni.cx/st_petersburg.html|title=Saint Petersburg Dialogues|date=|publisher=|year=1821|isbn=|location=|pages=|chapter=Seventh Dialogue|language=English|quote=In the immense sphere of living things, the obvious rule is violence, a kind of inevitable frenzy which arms all things ''in mutua funera''. Once you leave the world of insensible substances, you find the decree of violent death written on the very frontiers of life. Even in the vegetable kingdom, this law can be perceived: from the huge catalpa to the smallest of grasses, how many plants ''die'' and how many are ''killed''! But once you enter the animal kingdom, the law suddenly becomes frighteningly obvious. A power at once hidden and palpable appears constantly occupied in bringing to light the principle of life by violent means. In each great division of the animal world, it has chosen a certain number of animals charged with devouring the others; so there are insects of prey, reptiles of prey, birds of prey, fish of prey, and quadrupeds of prey. There is not an instant of time when some living creature is not devoured by another [...] Thus is worked out, from maggots up to man, the universal law of the violent destruction of living beings. The whole earth, continually steeped in blood, is nothing but an immense altar on which every living thing must be sacrificed without end, without restraint, without respite until the consummation of the world, the extinction of evil, the death of death.}}</ref>
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| 1824 || || Publication || {{w|Lewis Gompertz}} || Lewis Gompertz in ''Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes'' explores predation as a moral issue and advocates intervening to prevent it in certain circumstances.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gompertz|first=Lewis|url=https://archive.org/details/moralinquiriesonthesituationofmanandofbrutes-lewisgompertz|title=Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes|date=|publisher=Centaur|year=1992|isbn=|editor1-last=Singer|editor1-first=Peter|location=Fontwell|pages=93–94|language=English|quote=Y: As you think it wrong for man to kill other animals for food, do you also think it wrong that animals should devour each other? As this is the general law of nature.<br>Z: It appears wrong, according to the rules by which we govern our own actions to each other; and should I witness the attempt in any animal of destroying another, I would endeavour to frustrate it; though this might probably be wrong.}}</ref>
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| 1824 || {{dts|May 30}} || Publication || {{w|Giacomo Leopardi}} || Giacomo Leopardi engages in a dialogue with Nature in "Dialogo della Natura e di un Islandese" ("Dialogue between Nature and an Icelander"), questioning why Nature brings humans and other animals into existence only to inflict suffering and death upon them.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Leopardi|first=Giacomo|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52356|title=Essays and Dialogues|date=|publisher=Trübner & Co.|year=1882|isbn=|editor1-last=Singer|editor1-first=Peter|location=Ludgate Hill|pages=78–79|language=English|translator-last=Edwardes|translator-first=Charles|quote=Thus I reply to you. I am well aware you did not make the world for the service of men. It were easier to believe that you made it expressly as a place of torment for them. But tell me: why am I here at all? Did I ask to come into the world? Or am I here unnaturally, contrary to your will? If however, you yourself have placed me here, without giving me the power of acceptance or refusal of this gift of life, ought you not as far as possible to try and make me happy, or at least preserve me from the evils and dangers, which render my sojourn a painful one? And what I say of myself, I say of the whole human race, and of every living creature.}}</ref>
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| 1851 || || Publication || {{w|Arthur Schopenhauer}} || Arthur Schopenhauer compares the pleasure experienced by a predator to the pain experienced by the prey to argue that the world contains more pain than pleasure.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schopenhauer|first1=Arthur|title=On the Sufferings of the World|date=1851|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_Sufferings_of_the_World|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720223325/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_Sufferings_of_the_World<!--https://archive.fo/GMP30-->|archivedate=2018-07-20|deadurl=no|quote=The pleasure in this world, it has been said, outweighs the pain; or, at any rate, there is an even balance between the two. If the reader wishes to see shortly whether this statement is true, let him compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is engaged in eating the other.}}</ref>
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| 1874 || || Publication || {{w|John Stuart Mill}} || John Stuart Mill's essay "On Nature" is published posthumously. The essay discusses the amorality and cruelty of nature and argues that humans should struggle against it.<ref>JS Mill. On Nature.</ref>
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| 1899 || || Publication || {{w|J. Howard Moore}} || J. Howard Moore in ''Better World Philosophy'' laments the existence of carnivorous animals,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Moore|first=John Howard|url=http://archive.org/details/betterworldphilo00mooruoft|title=Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis|date=|publisher=The Ward Waugh Company|others=|year=1899|isbn=|location=Chicago|pages=[https://archive.org/details/betterworldphilo00mooruoft/page/162/mode/2up 123–125]|quote=The chief activities of beings, both human and non-human, are put forth, directly or indirectly, for the purpose of procuring food. The suppression, entire or partial, of one being by another for nutritive purposes is, therefore, the form of the most frequent and excessive egoism. The lowly forms of life—the worms, echinoderms, mollusks, and the like—are, for the most part, vegetarians. So, also, are prevalently the insects, birds, rodents, and ungulates. These creatures are not, as a rule, aggressively harmful to each other, chiefly indifferent. But upon these inoffensive races feed with remorseless maw the reptilia, the insectivora, and the carnivora. These being-eaters cause to the earth-world its bloodiest experiences. It is their nature (established organically by long selection, or, as in the case of man, acquired tentatively) to subsist, not on the kingdom of the plant, the natural and primal storehouse of animal energy, but on the skeletons and sensibilities of their neighbors and friends. The serpent dines on the sparrow and the sparrow ingulfs the gnat; the tiger slays the jungle-fowl and the coyote plunders the lamb; the seal subsists on fish and the ''ursus maritimus'' subsists on seal; the ant enslaves the aphidae and man eats and enslaves what can not get away from him. Life riots on life—tooth and talon, beak and paw. It is a sickening contemplation, but life everywhere, in its aspect of activity, is largely made up of the struggle by one being against another for existence—of the effort by one being to circumvent, subjugate, or destroy another, and of the counter effort to reciprocate or escape.}}</ref> he argues for a "Confederation of the Consciousnesses", as an ideal arrangement of the living universe, where sentient individuals of all species—excluding the irredeemable carnivora—bring together their individual talents and collaborate for the benefit of all.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Moore|first=John Howard|url=http://archive.org/details/betterworldphilo00mooruoft|title=Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis|date=|publisher=The Ward Waugh Company|others=|year=1899|isbn=|location=Chicago|pages=[https://archive.org/details/betterworldphilo00mooruoft/page/162/mode/2up 162–163]|quote= It is not possible, and it never will be possible, to organize all the beings occupying space into one immense confederacy. This would be ideal, but from the inexorable nature of things it can never be. The denizens of the sea depths can not correlate with the inhabitants of the clouds. The lion can not fraternize with the lamb, nor the hawk with the sparrow. The natures of beings have been evolved thru war, and they are in large part irredeemably antagonistic. But the approximation, if honest, may be more successful than is supposed, and may include many species not human. The bird may contribute his song and plumage, the sheep his fleece, the horse, the ox, the elephant, and the camel their strength or speed, the cow and the fowl their secretions, the dog his fidelity, and man his art. The ultimate and ideal aggregation of the living universe will not be a pan-American union nor a Euro-American league, nor even an aggregation whose spirit is embodied in a parliament of man, but the widest and most consummate possible ''Confederation of the Consciousnesses''.]}}</ref>
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| 1906 || || Publication || J. Howard Moore || In his book ''{{w|The Universal Kinship}}'', J. Howard Moore argues that the egoism of sentient beings—a product of natural selection—which leads them to exploit their sentient fellows, is the most mournful fact of existence, and speculates whether a sufficiently sympathetic human could significantly improve this situation if given the chance.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Moore|first=J. Howard (John Howard)|url=http://archive.org/details/universalkinship00moor|title=The Universal Kinship|publisher=Charles H. Kerr & Co.|year=1906|isbn=|location=Chicago|pages=249–250|quote= The preponderance of egoism in the natures of living beings is the most mournful and immense fact in the phenomena of conscious life. It has made the world the kind of world it would have been had the gods actually emptied their wrath vials upon it. Brotherhood is anomalous, and, even in its highest manifestations, is but the expression of a veiled and calculating egoism. Inhumanity is everywhere. The whole planet is steeped in it. Every creature faces an inhospitable universeful, and every life is a campaign. It has all come about as a result of the mindless and inhuman manner in which life has been developed on the earth. It has been said that an individual of unlimited faculties and infinite goodness and power made this world and endowed it with ways of acting, and that this individual, as the world's executive, continues to determine its phenomena by inspiring the order of its events. But one cannot help thinking sometimes, when, in his more daring and vivid moments, he comes to comprehend the real character and condition of the world, what a discrepancy exists between the reputation of this builder and his works, and cannot help wondering whether an ordinary human being with only common-sense and insight and an average concern for the welfare of the world would not make a great improvement in terrestrial affairs if he only had the opportunity for a while.}}</ref>
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| 1932 || || Publication || {{w|Clarence Darrow}}|| In his autobiography ''The Story of My Life'', Clarence Darrow describes in detail the brutality of the suffering experienced by animals in the wild.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Darrow|first=Clarence|url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500951h.html|title=The Story of My Life|publisher=|year=1932|isbn=|location=|pages=|quote=Whichever way man may look upon the earth, he is oppressed with the suffering incident to life. It would almost seem as though the earth had been created with malignity and hatred. If we look at what we are pleased to call the lower animals, we behold a universal carnage. We speak of the seemingly peaceful woods, but we need only look beneath the surface to be horrified by the misery of that underworld. Hidden in the grass and watching for its prey is the crawling snake which swiftly darts upon the toad or mouse and gradually swallows it alive; the hapless animal is crushed by the jaws and covered with slime, to be slowly digested in furnishing a meal. The snake knows nothing about sin or pain inflicted upon another; he automatically grabs insects and mice and frogs to preserve his life. The spider carefully weaves his web to catch the unwary fly, winds him into the fatal net until paralyzed and helpless, then drinks his blood and leaves him an empty shell. The hawk swoops down and snatches a chicken and carries it to its nest to feed its young. The wolf pounces on the lamb and tears it to shreds. The cat watches at the hole of the mouse until the mouse cautiously comes out, then with seeming fiendish glee he plays with it until tired of the game, then crunches it to death in his jaws. The beasts of the jungle roam by day and night to find their prey; the lion is endowed with strength of limb and fang to destroy and devour almost any animal that it can surprise or overtake. There is no place in the woods or air or sea where all life is not a carnage of death in terror and agony. Each animal is a hunter, and in turn is hunted, by day and night. No landscape is so beautiful or day so balmy but the cry of suffering and sacrifice rends the air. When night settles down over the earth the slaughter is not abated. Some creatures see best at night, and the outcry of the dying and terrified is always on the wind. Almost all animals meet death by violence and through the most agonizing pain. With the whole animal creation there is nothing like a peaceful death. Nowhere in nature is there the slightest evidence of kindness, of consideration, or a feeling for the suffering and the weak, except in the narrow circle of brief family life.}}</ref>
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| 1952 || {{dts|August}} || Publication || {{w|Alexander Skutch}} || Alexander Skutch publishes "Which Shall We Protect? Thoughts on the Ethics of the Treatment of Free Life", in which he discusses the ideal ethical relations towards "free life"; including predation.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Skutch|first=Alexander F.|title=Which Shall We Protect? Thoughts on the Ethics of the Treatment of Free Life|journal=The Aryan Path|year=1952|volume=23|issue=|pages=382–386|url=https://www.alexanderskutch.com/uploads/7/0/1/0/70104897/1952_aryan_protect_382-386.pdf|archiveurl=|archivedate=|deadurl=no}}</ref>
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| 1962 || {{dts|July}} || Publication || Alexander Skutch || Alexander Skutch publishes "Vegetarianism and the Evil of Predation", in which he argues that vegetarianism is a direct response to the greatest and most far-reaching evil of all—predation.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Skutch|first=Alexander F.|title=Vegetarianism and the Evil of Predation|journal=The Aryan Path|year=1962|volume=33|issue=|pages=298–302|url=https://www.alexanderskutch.com/uploads/7/0/1/0/70104897/1962_aryan_vegetarianism_298-302.pdf|archiveurl=|archivedate=|deadurl=no}}</ref>
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| 1973 || {{dts|June 14}} || Publication || {{w|Peter Singer}} || Peter Singer responds to a question about predation, arguing against interference in practice because the long-term consequences of intervention cannot be predicted. However, he accepts that intervention to reduce wild-animal suffering would be morally justified if one could be reasonably confident that the long-term effects would be positive.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Singer|first1=Peter|title=Food for Thought|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1973/jun/14/food-for-thought/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180509205824/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1973/06/14/food-for-thought/<!--https://archive.fo/WkUXS-->|archivedate=2018-05-09|deadurl=no|journal=The New York Review of Books|date=June 14, 1973}}</ref>
| 1995 || || Publication || {{w|Yew-Kwang Ng}} || Economist Yew-Kwang Ng's paper "Towards Welfare Biology: Evolutionary Economics of Animal Consciousness and Suffering" is published in ''Biology and Philosophy''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ng|first=Yew-Kwang|title=Towards Welfare Biology: Evolutionary Economics of Animal Consciousness and Suffering|journal=Biology and Philosophy|year=1995|volume=10|issue=3|pages=255–285|url=https://www.stafforini.com/library/ng-1995.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622113129/https://www.stafforini.com/library/ng-1995.pdf|archivedate=2018-06-22<!--http://www.webcitation.org/713tcQYz0 (downloads as attachment), https://archive.is/K4xZa (somewhat screwed up as it's a Google Cache of a PDF)-->|deadurl=no|doi=10.1007/BF00852469}}</ref> Ng introduces the term "welfare biology" (cf. [[wikipedia:conservation biology|conservation biology]]), which he defines as the positive study of the well-being of affectively sentient individuals. He discusses which species possess affective sentience. Ng then mentions that many species produce a large number of offspring, only a few of which survive to maturity. The paper argues that non-survivors suffer negative welfare. Since non-survivors greatly outnumber survivors, Ng considers this evidence in favor of the "Buddhist premise" (that wild animals experience more total suffering than happiness).
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| 1995 || || Publication || [[[wikipedia:David Pearce (philosopher)|David Pearce]] || David Pearce publishes his transhumanist manifesto ''The Hedonistic Imperative'', which argues that biotechnology can and should be used to eliminate the experience of suffering.<ref>{{cite book|author=Pearce, David|title=The Hedonistic Imperative|url=https://www.hedweb.com/hedab.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527232626/https://www.hedweb.com/hedab.htm|archivedate=2018-05-27|deadurl=no|date=1995|publisher=hedweb.com}}</ref> It includes a section on wild-animal suffering.|-| Summer 1995 || || Publication || Andrew Luke || Andrew Luke's article "And the Hyenas Laughed No More?" is published in ''The Vegan'', in which the author argues for the incompatibility between veganism and environmentalism, and describes the creation of a vegan utopia—a world where no harms befall any sentient beings.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Luke |first=Andrew |date=1995 |title=And the Hyenas Laughed No More?|url=https://issuu.com/vegan_society/docs/the-vegan-summer-1995/6|magazine=The Vegan|location= |publisher=The Vegan Society|access-date=2020-04-17}}</ref>
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| 1996 || December || Publication || David Olivier, Steve Sapontzis || ''Les Cahiers antispécistes'' publishes its 14th edition, which is dedicated to discussing the problem of predation and human intervention in nature.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Olivier |first1=David |last2=Bonnardel |first2=Yves |title=Éditorial |journal=Les Cahiers antispécistes |date=December 1996 |volume=14 |url=https://www.cahiers-antispecistes.org/editorial-14/ |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721033959/https://www.cahiers-antispecistes.org/editorial-14/<!--https://archive.is/AdO7s--> |archivedate=2018-07-21 |deadurl=no |language=fr-FR}}</ref> It features articles by David Olivier and Yves Bonnardel, as well as a translation of an article by Steve Sapontzis. For example, one article by Yves Bonnardel is entitled "Contre l’apartheid des espèces: À propos de la prédation et de l’opposition entre écologie et libération animale" ("Against the apartheid of species: On predation and the conflict between ecology and animal liberation").<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bonnardel |first1=Yves |title=Contre l’apartheid des espèces |trans-title=Against the apartheid of species |journal=Les Cahiers antispécistes |date=December 1996 |volume=14 |url=https://www.cahiers-antispecistes.org/contre-lapartheid-des-especes/ |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003100009/https://www.cahiers-antispecistes.org/contre-lapartheid-des-especes/ |archivedate=2017-10-03 |deadurl=no |language=fr-FR}}</ref>
| 2015 || {{dts|April 12}} || Publication || Brian Tomasik || Brian Tomasik publishes "Why Vegans Should Care About Wild Animal Suffering" on the website Reasonable Vegan.<ref>{{cite web|first1=Brian|last1=Tomasik|website=Reasonable Vegan|title= Why Vegans Should Care About Wild Animal Suffering |url=http://rvgn.org/2015/04/12/why-vegans-should-care-about-wild-animal-suffering/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721225444/http://rvgn.org/2015/04/12/why-vegans-should-care-about-wild-animal-suffering/<!--http://archive.is/sJ05B-->|archivedate=2018-07-21|deadurl=no}}</ref>
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| 2015 || {{dts|May 1}} || Publication || Magnus Vinding || Magnus Vinding publishes the e-book "''Speciesism: Why It Is Wrong and the Implications of Rejecting It"''. It argues that reducing wild-animal suffering is a moral imperative.<ref>{{cite book|title=Speciesism: Why It Is Wrong and the Implications of Rejecting It |first1=Magnus|last1=Vinding|date=May 1, 2015|publisher=Smashwords|url=https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/539674|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/715bd4E1l|archivedate=2018-07-22|deadurl=no}}</ref>
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| 2015 || {{dts|May}} || || || The philosophy journal ''Relations: Beyond Anthropocentrism'' publishes a special double volume on the ethics of wild-animal suffering and intervention in nature, edited by Animal Ethics staff.<ref>{{cite web|title=Academic work on wild animal suffering edited by Animal Ethics activists|url=http://www.animal-ethics.org/academic-work-on-wild-animal-suffering-edited-by-animal-ethics-activists/|website=Animal Ethics|date=23 December 2015}}</ref>
| 2016 || {{dts|March 15}} || Publication || Catia Faria || Catia Faria submits her PhD thesis "Animal Ethics Goes Wild: The Problem of Wild Animal Suffering and Intervention in Nature".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Faria |first1=Catia |title=Animal ethics goes wild: the problem of wild animal suffering and intervention in nature |date=2016-03-15 |publisher=Universitat Pompeu Fabra |url=https://www.tdx.cat/handle/10803/385919<!--PDF: https://www.tdx.cat/bitstream/handle/10803/385919/tcf.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y--> |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616130628/https://www.tdx.cat/handle/10803/385919<!--https://web.archive.org/web/20180716085310/https://www.tdx.cat/bitstream/handle/10803/385919/tcf.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y, http://www.webcitation.org/713vMYllk (download)--> |archivedate=2018-06-16 |deadurl=no}}</ref>
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| 2016 || {{dts|March 20}} || Publication || Magnus Vinding || Magnus Vinding publishes the e-book "''The Speciesism of Leaving Nature Alone, and the Theoretical Case for “Wildlife "Wildlife Anti-Natalism”Natalism"''.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Speciesism of Leaving Nature Alone, and the Theoretical Case for “Wildlife Anti-Natalism”|first1=Magnus|last1=Vinding|date=March 20, 2016|publisher=Smashwords|url=https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/624122|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/715bJLXWP|archivedate=2018-07-22|deadurl=no}}</ref>
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| 2016 || {{dts|March 23}} || Project || || Animal Ethics announces that none of the submissions to its Essay Prize met the standards they expected, and the prize was not awarded. However, they gave a $1,500 grant to the author of the best paper, Meera Inglis from the Department of Politics of the University of Sheffield, to continue her research on invasive species.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.animal-ethics.org/announcement-regarding-the-animal-ethics-essay-prize/|website=Animal Ethics|date=23 March 2016|title=Announcement regarding the Animal Ethics Essay Prize|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721050403/https://www.animal-ethics.org/announcement-regarding-the-animal-ethics-essay-prize/<!--https://archive.fo/6bIUy-->|archivedate=2018-07-21|deadurl=no}}</ref>
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| 2018 || {{dts|June}} || Funding || Lewis Bollard || Lewis Bollard allocates $70K to Animal Ethics, $40K to Utility Farm, and $30K to Wild-Animal Suffering Research via the EA Funds. He notes that all three organizations have converged around the strategy of building an academic field of wild-animal suffering, but have different approaches.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bollard|first1=Lewis|title=June 2018: Animal Welfare Fund Update|url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nTS2AEOLkuQEmEQ5ePa7opt9eoN_utvWvXPbFGJL90s|website=Effective Altruism Funds|publisher=Centre for Effective Altruism|language=en|date=June 2018|archiveurl=https://archive.is/6YMLA<!--http://www.webcitation.org/713qg9zKB-->|archivedate=2018-07-20|quote=Potential interventions to aid wild animals remain limited, and may be unwise, so I think it makes sense to build an academic field that can better research this problem and potential approaches to addressing it. The three primary groups in this space have all converged around the academic field-building strategy, though they have different approaches. Given the magnitude of the problem, my uncertainty over which approach is likely to be most effective, and my sense that all three groups are well-run, I’m proposing funding all three.|deadurl=no}}</ref>
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| 2018 || {{dts|August 10}} || Publication || Steven Nadler || Steven Nadler's in his essay "We Have an Ethical Obligation to Relieve Individual Animal Suffering", argues that we should intervene to relieve suffering in the wild, using the example of a starving polar bear.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://aeon.co/ideas/we-have-an-ethical-obligation-to-relieve-individual-animal-suffering|title=We Have an Ethical Obligation to Relieve Individual Animal Suffering|date=2018-08-10|website=Aeon|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-29}}</ref>
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| 2018 || September 4 || Publication || Persis Eskander || Persis Eskander from Wild-Animal Suffering Research publishes "An Introduction to Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://was-research.org/paper/an-introduction-to-human-appropriation-of-net-primary-productivity/|title=An Introduction to Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity|last=Esk|first=Persis|last2=er|date=2018-09-04|website=Wild-Animal Suffering Research|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-22}}</ref>
| 2019 || July 1 || Publication || || Animal Ethics publishes a new article about how fireworks harm nonhuman animals of all sizes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.animal-ethics.org/fireworks-harm-nonhuman-animals/|title=A new article about how fireworks harm nonhuman animals of all sizes|last=Ethics|first=Animal|date=2019-07-01|website=Animal Ethics|access-date=2019-07-22}}</ref>
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| 2019 || April || Project || || Wild Animal Initiative launches ''Wildness'', a podcast on wild animal ethics.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wildanimalinitiative.org/wildness|title=Wildness Podcast|website=Wild Animal Initiative|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-22}}</ref>
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| 2019 || January || Project || || Wild Animal Initiative launches The Compassionate Cat Grant aiming "to gather information on cat predation education at the rescue organization level and draw conclusions regarding the effect of advocacy efforts on the welfare of wild animals".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://catgrants.org/|title=The Compassionate Cat Grant|website=The Compassionate Cat Grant|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-22}}</ref>
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| 2019 || || Funding || || "[ACE's Animal Advocacy Research Fund awards] funding to Oscar Horta (Animal Ethics) for this project. The purpose of this project is to gain insight into the lines of research on wild animal suffering most likely to be accepted by and appealing to biologists and animal welfare scientists and students."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://researchfund.animalcharityevaluators.org/funded-projects/surveying-attitudes-toward-interventions-reducing-wild-animal-suffering-among-scientists-and-students/|title=Surveying attitudes toward interventions reducing wild animal suffering among scientists and students|date=2019-02-07|website=Animal Advocacy Research Fund|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-22}}</ref>
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| 2020 || {{dts|January 15}}|| Publication || Jeff Sebo || Jeff Sebo in "All We Owe to Animals", describes the seriousness of the threat of climate change to both humans and nonhuman animals and argues that we have a moral obligation to relieve the suffering of individual wild animals.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://aeon.co/essays/we-cant-stand-by-as-animals-suffer-and-die-in-their-billions|title=All We Owe to Animals|date=2019-02-07|website=Aeon|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-29}}</ref>
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| 2020 || {{dts|February 10}}|| Publication || Animal Ethics || Animal Ethics publishes "Scientists' attitudes towards improving the welfare of animals in the wild: a qualitative study"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.animal-ethics.org/scientists-attitudes-animals-wild-qualitative/|title=Scientists' attitudes towards improving the welfare of animals in the wild: a qualitative study|date=2020-02-10|website=Animal Ethics|language=en|access-date=2020-04-06}}</ref>
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| 2020 || {{dts|February 29}}|| Publication || Animal Ethics || Animal Ethics releases the first video of an online course on wild animal suffering.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.animal-ethics.org/announcing-the-first-video-of-an-online-course-on-wild-animal-suffering/|title=Announcing the first video of an online course on wild animal suffering|date=2020-02-29|website=Animal Ethics|language=en|access-date=2020-04-06}}</ref>
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| 2020 || {{dts|April 3}}|| Publication || Animal Ethics || Animal Ethics releases ''Introduction to Wild Animal Suffering: A Guide to the Issues'', as a companion text to its online video course.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.animal-ethics.org/introduction-wild-animal-suffering/|title=Introduction to wild animal suffering: A guide to the issues|date=2020-04-03|website=Animal Ethics|language=en|access-date=2020-04-06}}</ref>
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