The conundrum of wild animals clashing with stray animals
This year, the Wildlife First Aid Station at the Endemic Biological Research and Conservation Center received more incidents of dog attacks on pangolins than in previous years. This year (as of August), a total of 15 pangolins have been bitten by dogs and have been found to have been taken to first aid stations. Some of the pangolins sent, although they have lost some limbs, may have a chance to regain their lives; but there are more bitten pangolins, but they can only wait for death in the wild.
Pangolins are not the only animals attacked by dogs and cats, and the statistics of the first aid station are full of a long list of cases - more than 100 animals such as pregnant female mountain qiang, small ferret badger, small white nose heart, musk cat mother, macaque monkey attacked by dogs, and more than 40 animals such as collared owl, white-headed owl, Taiwan blue magpie, Taiwan hare and so on. Similarly, in addition to the lists sent after they were discovered, more casualties did not appear in front of the world.
These cases have caused conflicts between people who like stray animals and those who care about wildlife. But we can't help but ask, "Why do people who also like animals spend so much energy on internal consumption, attacking and hating each other?" In addition to the unequal transmission of information due to differences in life experience, the difference in the "moral and ethical line" drawn by animals is also the cause of the conflict.
▲ A large number of pangolins have been attacked by dogs in a short period of time this year.
The Evolution of Environmental Ethics
To discuss the moral and ethical lines that humans draw for animals, we must begin with the expansion of ethical objects. Historian Lecky proposed the concept of "expanding circles", in which human moral development is a process of continuous expansion by one's own people, from self, family, ethnic group, to region and state (Nash, 1989), which falls within the category of "anthropocentrism". Next, it expanded to the "life center ethic" and the subsequent "ecocentric ethic".
▲Expansion of ethical objects (Yang Guanzheng, 1996)
And each person has different experiences in life, so that this moral line extends different distances, which in turn leads to conflict. For example, some people draw boundaries on humans, so when the wave dog infringes on their rights, it will poison the dog; some people draw the line on the cats and dogs close to them, and feel unfamiliar with the conflict between the waves and the wild animals; and some people reach the "ecological center ethics" and hope to pay attention to the entire ecological circle.
Table: Important Environmental Ethics (Wang Congshu, 2001)
Is it really possible to draw a moral line?
However, not everyone agrees with this statement. In his 2013 speech at the University of Chinese in Hong Kong, Prof. Chung winged, "Peter Singh believes that marking lines represents discrimination and stereotypes. From the perspective of human history, when people draw lines according to skin color, the suffering of people of color is not important relative to white people; when people draw lines according to gender, it is not important to describe women's suffering relative to men."
Therefore, Teacher Qian believes that it is meaningless to draw lines according to species. For example, does drawing a line between a man and a pig mean that the pain of the pig has a different weight? Not really. Therefore, it is not possible to draw lines between species. Therefore, when man causes animal suffering, human beings move from sympathy and pity to moral judgment, believing that there is right and wrong in this, which is the concern of animal ethics.
However, from real cases, we can still find that the moral standard line of animal ethics exists in everyone's heart and varies with differences in countries, religions, cultures, personal experiences, etc. Before World War II, for example, Nazi Germany had the most complete animal care law in the world, with legislation prohibiting any unnecessary harm to animals. But at the same time, the Jews were classified as inferior humans, inferior to most animals. On the other hand, most European and American countries eat beef and condemn countries that eat horse or dog meat; for Hindu or Traditional Taiwanese agricultural societies, cattle are sacred animals or work partners, so beef should not be eaten.
In this animal ethics course by Writer Camp Qian Yongxiang, some students asked, "When pests (such as mosquitoes, ants and cockroaches) invade the home space, do we need to consider their animal ethics?" Professor Qian said that this is a gray area of animal ethics.
He quoted Levinas. People's ethical relations are often based on "faces", and people are less able to understand species that feel that they do not have "faces", and therefore less able to apply animal ethical concepts to that species. For Levinas, for example, a dog has a face (an expression), but it is not certain whether a snake has it, and this is the point of demarcation of the moral line.
From the above Louise. The theory of The "face" of Pietri Novi and Levinas can see that for the general public, the moral issues of human beings are like the "expanding circle" mentioned by Lucky, first placing people at the center of morality, followed by animals close to people, then other non-human animals, and finally the ecological circle. But the moral line has also changed because of differences in personal life.
Let's see "everyone's face" together
▲ Pangolin with its tail bitten off by a wave dog.
Returning to the conflict between wild animals and stray animals, whether they care about stray animals or people who care about wild animals, I believe that they hope that the waves can find a permanent home, and the wild animals can eliminate the threat of the waves and live in the wild with peace of mind. It can be seen that the purpose of everyone is the same, but the methods are very different, and how to achieve a common goal for the differences between the two sides is the direction that all of us need to work on in the future.
▲ Snakes that are feared by people actually have cute eyes and beautiful eyeliner.
In addition, not only humans or hairy children who are close to humans have faces, other life such as pangolins, snakes, mosquitoes, etc., have delicate and interesting faces, let's "see the faces of all animals" together! In addition, expand your horizons in daily life, step from life-centrism to ecocentrism, enjoy the grass and trees in nature, and enjoy the beauty of the ecological environment!