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26 Posts
Hello everyone,
Thank you for to thank you for creating this wonderful community, and I really appreciate the opportunity to get to know you better. I only recently transitioned to a vegan lifestyle, and am still working through a number of moral and ethical issues involving animals. who initiated comes to mind is that of handling the impact of invasive species. I know that many of us aspire to give animals their space within the wild, yet what do we do when human beings introduce a non-native animal species into a new environment that is not ready to handle it? I am talking in particular about the introduction of prey animals introduced into an environment in which they have no natural predators, and predator animals introduced into an environment where prey animals have not evolved to protect themselves from them. The introduction of rabbits into Australia comes to mind in the former case, and the introduction of predators into New Zealand comes to mind in the latter. In both cases, native species are typically not able to compete, and in many cases have either been driven to extinction outright or have come very close to it. Setting aside for the moment the concerns of an area's human inhabitants, who are disrupted by these high animal populations, what about the local animals that suffer as a result. Since these animals are in all cases introduced to these new environments by human beings, I think that we as humans are responsible for dealing with the consequences of our actions. However, if that is the case, how are we to deal with these consequences in a compassionate way. Do we simply allow nature to take its course, regardless of the consequences for local animal populations? Do we introduce new predators into the environment to handle the increased prey populations? Do we kill them ourselves? What are your thoughts on this issue?
Thank you for helping me work through this concern.
Warm Regards and Best Wishes,
Jonathan
Thank you for to thank you for creating this wonderful community, and I really appreciate the opportunity to get to know you better. I only recently transitioned to a vegan lifestyle, and am still working through a number of moral and ethical issues involving animals. who initiated comes to mind is that of handling the impact of invasive species. I know that many of us aspire to give animals their space within the wild, yet what do we do when human beings introduce a non-native animal species into a new environment that is not ready to handle it? I am talking in particular about the introduction of prey animals introduced into an environment in which they have no natural predators, and predator animals introduced into an environment where prey animals have not evolved to protect themselves from them. The introduction of rabbits into Australia comes to mind in the former case, and the introduction of predators into New Zealand comes to mind in the latter. In both cases, native species are typically not able to compete, and in many cases have either been driven to extinction outright or have come very close to it. Setting aside for the moment the concerns of an area's human inhabitants, who are disrupted by these high animal populations, what about the local animals that suffer as a result. Since these animals are in all cases introduced to these new environments by human beings, I think that we as humans are responsible for dealing with the consequences of our actions. However, if that is the case, how are we to deal with these consequences in a compassionate way. Do we simply allow nature to take its course, regardless of the consequences for local animal populations? Do we introduce new predators into the environment to handle the increased prey populations? Do we kill them ourselves? What are your thoughts on this issue?
Thank you for helping me work through this concern.
Warm Regards and Best Wishes,
Jonathan