Ethics and the Situation of Wild Animals

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A 50-minute lesson

1. 5 min
   Opening. Ask the question and let the class answer without correcting them: Would you help an animal injured by a car? And one injured by a storm? Why would there be a difference?
2. 15 min
   Reading. What Should We Do About Animals Living in the Wild? (2 min read) and How Not to Understand the Issue (2 min read). For younger classes, read the “For kids” layer: If a dog is hungry, it does not matter whether someone took his food away or he got lost in the rain: he is just as hungry either way. People who love animals want to help in both cases.
3. 15 min
   Discussion.

   • Would you help an animal injured by a car? And one injured by a storm? Why would there be a difference? (What Should We Do About Animals Living in the Wild?)
   • If a government could save people from a flood at little cost and did not, would you say that is not a matter of ethics? (How Not to Understand the Issue)
   • When you think of "nature," do you think of the adults who survive or of the young who do not? (How Do Natural Processes Typically Affect Wild Animals?)
   • What wild animals have you seen suffering and thought it was "normal"? Why? (The View That It Is Not a Problem Because the Victims Are Nonhuman Animals)
4. 10 min
   Activity. Project the debate simulator. In groups, the class chooses the best reply to each objection and explains why the others are weak.
5. 5 min
   Wrap-up. Each person writes one sentence about what changed in their thinking. Compare it with the volume summary: The vast majority of animals live in the wild, and most of them are born only to die young from hunger, cold, disease or predation. This volume argues that we have reasons to help them and answers more than thirty objections, from "arrogance" to parasitism, predation and the destruction of nature.

Exercise sheet

1. What common belief does the chapter question?

   1. That we should help wild animals in every way
   2. That it is enough to stop harming wild animals and "leave them alone"
   3. That wild animals do not exist

2. According to the central argument, the strength of our reasons to help depends on...

   1. the origin of the harm
   2. the magnitude of the harm
   3. the species

3. Does ethics deal only with what is obligatory or forbidden?

   1. Yes
   2. No, also with what is permissible or praiseworthy
   3. Only with what is legal

4. According to the chapter, to whom is the question of natural harms put?

   1. To natural processes
   2. To animals
   3. To us

5. In periods of stable population, how many offspring per adult survive, on average?

   1. About one
   2. About a hundred
   3. All of them

6. The objection that many eggs are destroyed before they become sentient beings...

   1. solves the problem
   2. does not change the conclusion, since those that remain are still a gigantic number
   3. is false

7. The view being criticized considers the situation of wild animals relevant only when...

   1. it affects humans or environmentalist goals
   2. they suffer
   3. they are young

8. The chapter concludes that the good of animals...

   1. matters in itself and as much as that of humans
   2. matters less
   3. does not matter

9. The "argument from the strength of reasons" says that the strength of our reasons depends on...

   1. the origin of the harm
   2. the magnitude of the harms and benefits at stake
   3. the victim's species

10. The "argument from the weight of the criterion" assumes, for the sake of argument, that...

    1. anthropogenic harms weigh more, and shows that even so we would have strong reasons to help
    2. natural harms do not exist
    3. animals do not feel

The lesson plan and exercises are a study layer written for this site. The texts read are by Luciano Carlos Cunha.