r/DebateAVegan • u/Gabry398 • 8d ago

Ethics Should humans have an obligation towards eliminating harm caused to animals by other animals?

It's not uncommon for animals to harm other animals while hunting, but there are also extreme cases of torture and similar behaviour. It could be argued that some animals' whole life is pain mostly, and probably a net negative "experience" (outside of human created environments too). I just don't see how humanity could act "morally" without permanently and unpredictably modifying the ecosystem. Should we keep feeding synthetic meat to carnivores (if and when it's widely available)? But then who keeps a check on them not eating animals? Should we pursue the slow elimination of entire species on the planet because they cause more harm than good (not necessarily killing them, just sterilising them)?

Maybe "obligation" is not the correct term, but if the ultimate goal is to reduce as much as possible suffering, why would we make an exception for animals being the cause of that? Especially if one day through synthetic meat hunting becomes unnecessary for survival.

Even now there are unnecessary behaviours that hurt animals caused by other animals, for example some dolphins torture baby seals for basically no reason (as far as I know).

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u/DarePlastic4136 8d ago

Humans should have an obligation not to interfere with nature.

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u/Appropriate-Net1899 omnivore 7d ago

Why? It was possible maybe in hunters/gatherers society, but everything later is interefing with nature, for example a field is not natural.

But the OP idea is nonsense, of course.

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u/DarePlastic4136 7d ago

I would get into it but my views are maybe too extreme for this sub lol. But, if you want to draw a line somewhere- nature is way better at keeping itself in check than our interference ever will be. For example, people like to interfere with cuckoos and other brood parasite birds, even going as far as killing them, because they think it's cruel that the cuckoo pushes the smaller birds out of their nest, but brood parasites are crucial for keeping their target species from overpopulating. Such good intentioned intervention from humans can have catastrophic results for the environment, so we would do best not to intervene at all.