Eggleston et al.-The role of ethics

New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts

The role of ethics in the management of New Zealand’s wild mammals

J. E. Eggleston

Philosophy & Religious Studies Department
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch, New Zealand
email: jee15@student.canterbury.ac.nz

S. S. Rixecker

Environment, Society and Design Division
P.O. Box 84, Lincoln University
Canterbury, New Zealand

G. J. Hickling

Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
13 Natural Resources Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48823
USA

Abstract Ethical concern for the welfare of sentient animals is increasingly accepted within animal-based sciences. Wildlife researchers and managers in New Zealand have attempted to define specific ethical responsibilities towards introduced pests of conservation values. Animal welfare guidelines developed for captive and domestic animals have been found unsuitable for this new context. Marks’ (1999) recent recommendation that we should adopt an ecocentric ethic that always relegates animal welfare to a secondary concern is shown to provide an incomplete methodology. We propose a more comprehensive framework for considering ethical responsibility to pest species based on a review of contemporary bioethics. This framework is adapted and demonstrated specifically for New Zealand’s introduced wild ungulates. Under this framework some contemporary assumptions must be questioned (e.g., justifying recreational hunting through the provision of an ecologically therapeutic role). We recommend continued and comprehensive processes of ethical consideration in management decision-making for other introduced wild mammal species.

Keywords animal welfare; applied ethics; conservation; deer control; introduced mammals; recreational hunting; Ungulata; wildlife management

Z03025 Received 3 June 2003; accepted 15 July 2003; online publication date 16 October 2003
New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2003, Vol. 30: 361-376
0301-4223/03/3004-0361 $7.00/0 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2003

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