Puppy Love: Reproduction, Birthright, and Abolition

    Activity: Talk or presentation for an academic audienceInvited talk for an academic audience

    Description

    Puppy Love: Reproduction, Birthright, and Abolition

    In this paper, I set out and defend an argument that calls for the abolition of pet-keeping. This argument is concerned with the institutional dynamics of the practice that sees pets as necessarily socially positioned as subordinate to humans. I show that these relations of power are illegitimate because they set back animals’ interests in self-determination and expose them to unacceptable risks of harm. The upshot of this argument is that we must refrain from reproducing the institution of pet-keeping and cease bringing animals into existence to be pets. I then consider two powerful objections, which suggest that one cannot abolish the practice of pet-keeping without doing serious injustice to existing and future pets. The first objection maintains that abolition will necessitate an unjustifiable interference with the reproductive interests of existing individual animals. The second objection maintains that pets, “through domestication, [..] have acquired a birthright in this shared society” (Kymlicka 2022, p.222). Unlike the first objection, the second is not concerned with the rights of individual animals but rather with domesticated animals as a multigenerational class persisting through time. In response, I argue that both objections are insensitive to the interests of individual future pets and that a more complete picture of the interests at stake supports abolitionism.


    Period21 Mar 202423 Mar 2024
    Event titleEthics at the Interface of Future Generations and Nature
    Event typeWorkshop
    LocationZurich, SwitzerlandShow on map
    Degree of RecognitionInternational