judgmentindecidingwhentofollownature.ForallIknow,
waris“natural”tohumanbeings—itcertainlyseemstohave
beena preoccupationfor many societies, in very different
circumstances,overalongperiodofhistory—butIhaveno
intentionofgoingtowartomakesurethatIactinaccordance
withnature.Wehavethecapacitytoreasonaboutwhatitis
besttodo.Weshouldusethiscapacity(andifyouarereally
keenonappealsto“nature,”youcansaythatitisnaturalfor
us to do so).
Itmustbeadmittedthattheexistenceofcarnivorousanimals
doesposeone problemfortheethicsofAnimalLiberation,
andthatiswhetherweshoulddoanythingaboutit.Assuming
thathumanbeingscouldeliminatecarnivorousspeciesfrom
the
earth,andthatthetotalamountofsufferingamonganimalsin
the world would thereby be reduced, should we do it?
Theshort and simple answeris that oncewe giveup our
claimto“dominion”overtheotherspeciesweshould stop
interferingwiththematall.Weshouldleavethemaloneas
muchaswepossiblycan.Havinggivenuptheroleoftyrant,
we should not try to play God either.
Thoughitcontainspartofthetruth,thisansweristooshort
andsimple.Likeitornot,humanbeingsdoknowmorethan
otheranimalsaboutwhatmayhappeninthefuture,andthis
knowledgemayputusin asituation in whichitwouldbe
callousnottointerfere.InOctober1988,televisionviewers
throughouttheworldapplaudedthesuccessofAmericanand
RussianeffortstoreleasetwoCaliforniagraywhalestrapped
intheAlaskanice.Somecriticsnoticedtheironyinmaking
suchextensiveeffortsto savetwowhales,whileabouttwo