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.
Another argument that some people have that relates to this topic is especially
for dogs and cats, is shelter life better than euthanasia? This delves into a
much deeper argument but just to scratch the surface, many shelters have gotten
a bad reputation for being dirty and mistreating animals, but those animals
that do live in shelters survive and don’t get put down right away. It’s up to
the individual to choose whether they believe this is moral or not.
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