Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T11:09:55.819Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does breeding a bulldog harm it? Breeding, ethics and harm to animals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

C Palmer
C Palmer*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Texas A&M University, College Station, 4237 TAMU, Texas 77843-4237, USA
*
email: cpalmer@philosophy.tamu.edu
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

It is frequently claimed that breeding animals that we know will have unavoidable health problems is at least prima facie wrong, because it harms the animals concerned. However, if we take ‘harm’ to mean ‘makes worse off’, this claim appears false. Breeding an animal that will have unavoidable health problems does not make any particular individual animal worse off, since an animal bred without such problems would be a different individual animal. Yet, the intuition that there is something ethically wrong about breeding animals — such as purebred pedigree dogs — in ways that seem negatively to affect welfare remains powerful. In this paper, an animal version of what is sometimes called the non-identity problem is explored, along with a number of possible ways of understanding what might be wrong with such breeding practices, if it is not that they harm the animal itself. These possibilities include harms to others, placeholder arguments, non-comparative ideas of harm, an ‘impersonal’ approach, and concerns about human attitudes and dispositions.

Keywords

animal ethicsanimal welfarebreedingharmnon-identity problempedigree dogs
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , May 2012 , pp. 157 - 166
Copyright
© 2012 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

References

Advocates for Animals 2006 The Price of a Pedigree: Dog Breed Standards and Breed-Related Illness. Advocates for Animals: Edinburgh, UK. www.advocatesforanimals.orgGoogle Scholar
Benatar, D 2006 Better Never To Have Been. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296422.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boonin, D 2003 Robbing PETA to spay Paul: do animal rights include reproductive rights? Between the Species 13: 1–9Google Scholar
Bradley, B 2009 Analyzing Harm. Unpublished conference paper at: http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/center/rome/RoME_2009_full_papers/Ben_Bradley_Analyzing%20Harm.docGoogle Scholar
Cooper, D 1998 Intervention, humility and animal integrity. In: Holland, A and Johnson, A (eds) Animal Biotechnology and Ethics pp 145–155. Chapman & Hall: London, UK. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5783-8_11CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeGrazia, D 2005 Human Identity and Bioethics. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UKCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanahan, D, Wagner, EF and Palmiter, RD 2007 The origins of oncomice: a history of the first transgenic mice genetically engineered to develop cancer. Genes Development 21: 2258–2270. http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/gad.1583307Google Scholar
Hanser, M 1990 Harming future people. Philosophy & Public Affairs 19: 47–70Google ScholarPubMed
Harman, E 2004 Can we harm and benefit in creating? Philosophical Perspectives Ethics 18: 89–113. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1520-8583.2004.00022.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harman, E 2009 Harming as causing harm. In: Roberts, M and Wasserman, D (eds) Harming Future Persons pp 137–154. Springer: Dordrecht, The Netherlands. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5697-0_7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heyd, D 1992 Genethics: Moral Issues in the Creation of People. University of California Press: Berkeley, USACrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, T 2007 1983 Ideals of human excellence and preserving natural environments. In: LaFollette, H (ed) Ethics in Practice, Third Edition pp 680–690. Blackwell: Oxford, UKGoogle Scholar
Holtug, N 2010 Persons, Interests and Justice. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199580170.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lillehammer, H 2009 Reproduction, partiality and the non-identity problem. In: Roberts, M and Wasserman, D (eds) Harming Future People: Ethics, Genetics and the Non-Identity Problem pp 231–248. Springer: Dordrecht, The NetherlandsCrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMahan, J 2009 Assymmetries in the morality of causing people to exist. In: Roberts and Wasserman (eds) Harming Future People: Ethics, Genetics and the Non-Identity Problem pp 49–70. Springer: Dordrecht, The NetherlandsGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, AR 1999 Longevity of British breeds of dog and its relationships with sex, size, cardiovascular variables and disease. Veterinary Record 145: 625–629. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/vr.145.22.625CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mulgan, T 2006 Future People. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/019928220X.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noonan, H 2009 Identity. In: Zalta, EN (ed) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity/Google Scholar
Parfit, D 1984 Reasons and Persons. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UKGoogle Scholar
Patronek, GJ, Waters, DJ and Glickman, LT 1997 Comparative longevity of pet dogs and humans: implications for gerontology research. The Journal of Gerontology 52A/3: B171–B178Google Scholar
Roberts, M 2009 The non-identity problem and the two-envelope problem. In: Roberts, M and Wasserman, D (eds) Harming Future People: Ethics, Genetics and the Non-Identity Problem pp 201–330. Springer: Dordrecht, The NetherlandsCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rollin, B 2003 Farm Animal Welfare: Social, Bioethical and Research Issues. Wiley-Blackwell: Oxford, UKGoogle Scholar
Rooney, NJ 2009 Welfare of pedigree dogs: cause for concern. Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research 4: 180–186CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RSPCA 2009 On Crufts Dog Show. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4761471.eceGoogle Scholar
SandØe, P and Christiansen, S 2008 Ethics of Animal Use. Blackwell: Oxford, UKGoogle Scholar
Singer, P 1979 Practical Ethics. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UKGoogle Scholar
Streiffer, R 2008 Animal biotechnology and the non-identity problem. American Journal of Bioethics 8(6): 47–48CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
UK Kennel Club 2004 Purebred dog health survey. Kennel Club and British Small Animal Veterinary Association: London, UK. Available at http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/item/549Google Scholar
Wasserman, D 2005 The non-identity problem, disability and the role morality of prospective parents. Ethics 116: 132–152Google Scholar
Wolf, C 2009 Do future persons presently have alternate possible identities? In: Roberts, M and Wasserman, D (eds) Harming Future People: Ethics, Genetics and the Non-Identity Problem pp 93–114. Springer: Dordrecht, The NetherlandsCrossRefGoogle Scholar