Does nature know best? Animals in the wild suffer all the time from accidents, injuries, diseases, hunger, and thirst in situations in which we could help them. Yet many people believe that we shouldn’t “interfere” in nature because it seems wrong somehow. But why? Mother Nature is not exactly benevolent. Things exists the way they do because of natural processes that gave rise to certain organisms and ecosystems. It doesn’t mean anything. Why should natural things have intrinsic value in and of themselves? Ecosystems don’t have feelings. They can’t be harmed or helped by our actions. So isn’t the right thing to do to care about those beings who can suffer and who we might be able to help?
When it comes to humans, what we care about is their wellbeing, and we usually feel the same way about the domesticated animals we live with like dogs and cats. So why do we suddenly switch our thinking when it comes to wild animals? Why do we consider them as a part of nature rather than feeling beings living in it?
Of course, sometimes wild animals get trapped in wells or fences so we may feel some responsibility for their plight. But really, a suffering animal doesn’t care why they are suffering – due to a human or a natural cause.
It’s true that we if we intervened in large ways we would change ecosystems, but as long as it doesn’t do greater harm, does that matter? Ecosystems change all the time on their own anyway. With climate change and population growth and technological progress, we are going to be redesigning the entire world soon anyway, so we have to decide whether we want to leave wild animals to suffer because we like the idea of natural processes for their own sake, or whether we care about sentient individuals and their wellbeing.
There are already many feasible ways of helping wild animals on a small scale. There are feeding and watering programs in national parks, and individuals and communities who come together to rescue wild animals from accidents, illness, forest fires and other natural disasters.
http://www.animal-ethics.org/rescuing-trapped-animals/
There are many, many more wild animals than domesticated animals and humans.
https://steemit.com/animals/@goose/how-many-wild-animals-are-there
Most of the world’s suffering takes place in the wild. While we are planning for a world that alleviates human suffering, let’s think about helping wild animals, too. We may not be able to help every insect that may be suffering, but there are plans we could be thinking about now to help some animals. Elephants are a good example to start with because they have no natural predators and they usually die prematurely due to preventable diseases or dental conditions that could be corrected relatively inexpensively.
https://steemit.com/animalsinsociety/@goose/a-proposal-for-an-animal-welfare-state
What do you think?