Submission #14: Is it morally acceptable to euthanize an animal?

On May 9th visitors at the Yellowstone National Park brought a newborn bison calf to a park facility because they were concerned for the calf’s welfare. When park rangers tried to reunite the calf with its family, they could not get it back with the herd after several tries. "The bison calf was later euthanized because it was abandoned and causing a dangerous situation by continually approaching people and cars along the roadway," the park said in a statement. The reason that the park could not release the calf into the wild or care for it themselves is because the calf couldn’t be shipped out of the park for months because of a quarantine required to prevent the possible spread of brucellosis (a bacterial disease typically affecting cattle and buffalo and causing undulant fever in humans) and also, the park doesn’t have the resources to care for a calf that long. The visitors cited for touching park wildlife and fined $110.

There is much controversy around the topic of euthanizing or ‘putting down’ an animal, especially if it is healthy. Those who believe that it is in the best interest of an animal to be put down would be following a consequentialistic or utilitarianistic ethical standpoint because they would think that the rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by the amount of pleasure or happiness it creates compared to the amount of harm and pain inflicted. They are looking at the outcome, rather than the action, whatever action results in the best outcome for everyone. However, one problem that can arise with this is ‘best outcome for whom?’ For example, if a dog was healthy but a family just could not care for it anymore and they wanted to euthanize it, would that be acceptable in a consequentialistic sense? Putting down an animal that is healthy is not the best outcome for the animal, but it is for the family. I guess then in this case, majority rules in a way, it is better to please 100 people than 10. Conversely, the opposite theory would be Deontology, where one needs to do the morally correct action, regardless of the consequences. These people would look more at what they are doing in okay rather than if the outcome if acceptable. In this case, a person would not euthanize the animal, even if it affects the family badly because the act of euthanizing a healthy animal is considered immoral.