In response to Brandon - full post here
I think it is perhaps pressing to discern which animals should be marked as under guardianship and those who take care of themselves. It seems that those animals that are domesticated are the ones most in need of paternalistic guidance as they navigate the complicated social realities of living as part of human society.
What I'm worried about is weather this takes away some essential dignity, not to say that we can say pets have a sense of dignity. These are rights bearing animals with consciousnesses and memories so they certainly require being treated with some respect.
I'm not sure if wild animals count as those under guardianship. Our relationship with animals in the wild is much less straightforward than our relationship with our domesticated animals, especially considering our various and sundry failures to positively intervene in the affairs of the larger ecosystem. If anything we have a responsibility to wild animals, but we are not their guardians because they don't need us. They simply need us not to interfere in their natural habitats so they can get on with their lives.'
In short, it seems we have positive duties to those animals we are guardians of (i.e. providing shelter and guidance in human society) and only negative duties to wild animals (i.e. to not utterly destroy their environment or otherwise unreasonably intervene in their lives).
I think it is perhaps pressing to discern which animals should be marked as under guardianship and those who take care of themselves. It seems that those animals that are domesticated are the ones most in need of paternalistic guidance as they navigate the complicated social realities of living as part of human society.
What I'm worried about is weather this takes away some essential dignity, not to say that we can say pets have a sense of dignity. These are rights bearing animals with consciousnesses and memories so they certainly require being treated with some respect.
I'm not sure if wild animals count as those under guardianship. Our relationship with animals in the wild is much less straightforward than our relationship with our domesticated animals, especially considering our various and sundry failures to positively intervene in the affairs of the larger ecosystem. If anything we have a responsibility to wild animals, but we are not their guardians because they don't need us. They simply need us not to interfere in their natural habitats so they can get on with their lives.'
In short, it seems we have positive duties to those animals we are guardians of (i.e. providing shelter and guidance in human society) and only negative duties to wild animals (i.e. to not utterly destroy their environment or otherwise unreasonably intervene in their lives).
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