Wildlife ethics: The Ethics of Wildlife Management and Conservation
Clare Palmer, Bob Fischer, Christian Gamborg, Jordan Hampton and Peter Sandøe (2023).
UFAW Animal Welfare series. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN: 978-1-119-61126-4. Available via Wiley's webpage
About the book
Poisoned possums, dehorned rhinos, toeless frogs, starving polar bears, infectious bats, and endangered wildcats: the world is changing rapidly for wildlife; the way humans think about and value wildlife is developing just as quickly. Accordingly, there are pressing new ethical questions for traditional management and conservation goals and the strategies people adopt to achieve them.
This new textbook explores a wide range of wildlife controversies, the conflicting values behind them, and the ethical perspectives that shape them. The book introduces broadly anthropocentric approaches, where human lives and welfare matter most (or exclusively) and where wildlife is valuable—or otherwise—based on its significance for humans. It also looks at several non-anthropocentric approaches, including ones where whole wild animal species, the ecosystems in which wild animals live, and/or the wildness they manifest are valuable in themselves. Likewise, it considers views where the lives and welfare of individual wild animals are given priority.
The book explores different ethical theories, including theories on which outcomes, rights, relationships, and virtues matter most—each of which helps us think through what we value, why we value it, and how to handle such values. In addition, it considers the ways in which these different values and ethical theories are embedded in a variety of wildlife management frameworks.
This textbook will be a valuable resource for wildlife professionals and students, offering scholarly rigor, an accessible and engaging style, and a host of case studies to bring out the real-world implications of the theoretical complexities.
Here you can read the first chapter of the book: Introduction (pdf)
You will find the list of content here: Contents (pdf)