Hunting as a Moral Good

Author: Cahoone, Lawrence

Source: Environmental Values, Volume 18, Number 1, February 2009 , pp. 67-89(23)

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Abstract:

I argue that hunting is not a sport, but a neo-traditional cultural trophic practice consistent with ecological ethics, including a meliorist concern for animal rights or welfare. Death by hunter is on average less painful than death in wild nature. Hunting achieves goods, including trophic responsibility, ecological expertise and a unique experience of animal inter-dependence. Hunting must then be not only permissible but morally good wherever: a) preservation of ecosystems or species requires hunting as a wildlife management tool; and/or b) its animal deaths per unit of nutrition is lower than that caused by farming practices. Both conditions obtain at least some of the time.

Keywords: agriculture; animal rights; animal welfare; environmental ethics; hunting; wildlife management

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3197/096327109X404771

Publication date: 2009-02-01