Customer Reviews

Wild Animals and American Environmental Ethics

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This book provides an intellectual history of American views toward wild animals. Though the book covers other matters, its particular contribution lies in emphasizing the role of the animal welfare movement as a motive for preserving nature and wilderness. Mighetto examines the early years of the animal welfare and environmental movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, giving a lot of attention to fiction writers and the popular press as opposed to philosophers or theoreticians.

The animal welfare perspective tends to emphasize individual animals - - a Bambi perspective, if you well. As Mighetto notes, this leads to conflicts with two other strands of the conservation movement. First, there's an obvious conflict with hunters, who have historically been an important part of the conservation coalition. Second, there's a conflict with those who care more about biodiversity and/or whole ecosystems. For example, Mighetto discusses the problem of feral burros in the desert southwest, which the National Park Service would like to kill because they wreak havoc on the soil and native vegetation. Most environmental groups agree, but most animal welfare advocates would disagree with park service policy.

This is a small book but a worthwhile one. It's not a profound treatment of a big topic, but it does a good job covering its particular neck of the woods.