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Freedom and Animal Welfare

Browning, Heather and Veit, Walter (2021) Freedom and Animal Welfare. [Preprint]

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Abstract

The keeping of captive animals in zoos and aquariums has long been controversial. Many take freedom to be a crucial part of animal welfare and on these grounds criticise all forms of animal captivity as harmful to animal welfare, regardless of their provisions. Here, we analyse what it might mean for freedom to matter to welfare, distinguishing between the role of freedom as an intrinsic good, valued for its own sake and an instrumental good, its value arising from the increased ability to provide other important resources. Too often this debate is conducted through trading intuitions about what matters for animals. We argue for the need for collection of comparative welfare data about wild and captive animals in order to settle the issue. Discovering more about the links between freedom and animal welfare will then allow for more empirically-informed ethical decisions regarding captive animals.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Browning, Heatherheather.browning@anu.edu.au0000-0003-1554-7052
Veit, Walterwrwveit@gmail.com0000-0001-7701-8995
Keywords: measurement, animal welfare, freedom, animal welfare science, zoo science, welfare biology, animal ethics
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Biology
Specific Sciences > Psychology > Comparative Psychology and Ethology
Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Consciousness
General Issues > Ethical Issues
General Issues > Values In Science
Depositing User: Dr. Walter Veit
Date Deposited: 17 Apr 2021 15:15
Last Modified: 05 Feb 2023 14:10
Item ID: 18916
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Biology
Specific Sciences > Psychology > Comparative Psychology and Ethology
Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Consciousness
General Issues > Ethical Issues
General Issues > Values In Science
Date: 2021
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/18916

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