"It is commonly believed that animal ethics entails respect for natural processes, because nonhuman animals are able to live relatively easy and happy lives in the wild. However, this assumption is wrong. Due to the most widespread reproductive strategy in nature, r-selection, the overwhelming majority of nonhuman animals die shortly after they come into existence. They starve or are eaten alive, which means their suffering vastly outweighs their happiness. Hence, concern for nonhuman animals entails that we should try to intervene in nature to reduce the enormous amount of harm they suffer. Even if this conclusion may seem extremely counter-intuitive at first, it can only be rejected from a speciesist viewpoint."
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Oscar Horta, "Debunking the Idyllic View of Natural Processes: Population Dynamics and Suffering in the Wild", Telos: Revista Iberoamericana de Estudios Utilitaristas, Vol. 17, Iss. 1 (2010), p. 73
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wild_animal_suffering
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Oscar Horta
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