Cameron Meyer Shorb making the case for wild animals and why we should care about their suffering.
Nov 2, 2023
01:29:12
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Cameron Meyer Shorb, Executive director of Wild Animal Initiative, makes a compelling case for investing in understanding and reducing wild animal suffering responsibly. Topics include grant-making for research, past interventions, future welfare applications, exploring cricket populations, measuring well-being, and supporting early career researchers in academic research.
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Quick takeaways
Understanding wild animal suffering involves acknowledging the potential for immense suffering in species with high mortality rates, urging for interventions to alleviate their pain.
Advocating for wild animal welfare parallels farm animal advocacy, emphasizing the need to expand compassion towards all animals for a holistic welfare approach.
Measuring well-being in wild animals poses challenges due to the lack of direct communication, highlighting the necessity for innovative research to assess their experiences effectively.
Deep dives
Research on Wild Animal Welfare Science and Potential Suffering
Research into wild animal welfare science highlights the potential for suffering among wild animal populations. Similar to farmed animals, specific wild animal species could face lives filled with suffering that might outweigh moments of happiness. This is particularly evident in species with numerous offspring, most of which die early, skewing the balance towards suffering. Understanding the concept of wild animal suffering involves exploring capacities for pain and pleasure, and contemplating human intervention to mitigate such suffering.
Expanding Farm Animal Advocacy to Include Wild Animal Welfare
The podcast episode advocates for extending the passion for farm animal advocacy to address the suffering of wild animals. By delving into evolving perspectives on animal welfare, listeners are encouraged to consider the impact of human intervention on wild animal populations. Highlighting the goal of improving the lives of animals through advancing the field of wild animal welfare science, the episode emphasizes the importance of broadening advocacy efforts to encompass wild animal welfare.
Challenges in Measuring Wild Animal Welfare
The discussion touches on the complexities of measuring well-being in wild animals, noting the absence of direct communication channels for animals to convey their experiences. Comparing it to the difficulty in assessing human happiness, the conversation raises the challenge of quantifying positive and negative sensations in wild animals. The need for innovative research methodologies to bridge this gap in understanding underscores the ongoing efforts to develop effective welfare measurement tools.
Variability in Positive and Negative Sensations Among Wild Animals
Exploring the diverse spectrum of experiences in wild animals, the episode reflects on the balance between positive and negative sensations. It references scholarly work suggesting that animals in the wild may face both negative (predation, disease) and positive (satiating hunger, quenching thirst) sensations, prompting a nuanced evaluation of their well-being. This dynamic range of experiences highlights the complexity of assessing wild animal welfare and underscores the necessity of comprehensive research to capture the multifaceted nature of their lives.
Research on Cricket Welfare
Investigating cricket welfare involves studying the reflectivity of their exoskeletons as a potential indicator of their well-being. By correlating this with other welfare indicators such as mortality rates or specific behaviors, researchers aim to develop new welfare assessment methods. This research exemplifies the importance of funding projects that bring unique expertise to probe questions beyond conventional approaches.
Expanding Wild Animal Initiative
Wild Animal Initiative plans to expand its research team to contribute to academic discourse and support research collaborations. With room for increased funding, particularly in granting more research projects on wild animal welfare, the initiative also focuses on building longer-term institutional programs. Through strategic outreach initiatives like workshops and conferences, they aim to attract and nurture new researchers in the field.
Cameron is the executive director of Wild Animal Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of animals by accelerating the growth of wild animal welfare science.
In this episode Cameron helps us to understand the vast topic of wild animal suffering. Cameron makes the compelling case for why we should invest resources into understanding how we can reduce wild animal suffering responsibly with data-backed interventions, improving the overall well-being of wild animals.
We talk through the importance of Wild Animal Initiative’s research in this area, their grant-making arm which is enabling the research field in this area to grow and the future plans for their work.
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