"This means that the number of animals that come into existence only to die shortly after is extremely high. On average, if we consider a context in which populations remain stable at least in the mid term, for each animal that reproduces, only one of her or his offspring survives (otherwise animal populations would grow exponentially very fast, and would become massive with just one generation). This means that all the rest of the animals die. Many of them die shortly after coming into existence. These animals starve to death, are eaten by other animals, or die for other reasons that usually entail a great deal of suffering. This means that an enormous number of animals come into existence only to suffer. Their lives contain virtually no enjoyment, since they die shortly after they start to exist. However, their lives do contain significant suffering, because of the painful ways in which they die. They thus live lives in which disvalue outweighs value. Living their lives causes them more harm than good. In fact, in many cases it causes them great harm and no good at all."
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Oscar Horta, "The Problem of Evil in Nature: Evolutionary Bases of the Prevalence of Disvalue", Relations: Beyond Anthropocentrism, Vol. 3, Iss. 1 (May 2015), p. 20
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wild_animal_suffering
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Oscar Horta
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