Wolf Peter Joseph, Schaffner Joan E
Best Friends Animal Society, Kanab, UT, United States.
The George Washington University Law School, Washington, DC, United States.
Front Vet Sci. 2019 Jan 11;5:341. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2018.00341. eCollection 2018.
In the 2008 article "A Review of Feral Cat Control," Robertson explored the trend developing in the management of so-called "feral" cats away from lethal methods toward the non-lethal method of trap-neuter-return (TNR). The review explored various issues raised by the presence of these unowned, free-roaming cats in our neighborhoods (e.g., zoonotic disease and wildlife predation), stakeholder interests, and management options-all based on then-available information. Missing from the review, however, was an exploration of the shifting ethics underlying TNR's increasing popularity. In this essay, we explore the ethical aspects of community cat management in the U.S. as reflected in the momentum of the "no-kill movement" generally and TNR in particular. We argue that these powerful cultural currents reflect two interrelated ethical theories: (1) a zoocentric ethic that recognizes the intrinsic value of non-human animals beyond any instrumental value to humans, and (2) a virtue ethic that recognizes the legitimacy of "emotional" considerations (e.g., compassion) that rightly accompany decisions about how best to manage community cats.
在2008年发表的《野猫控制综述》一文中，罗伯逊探讨了所谓“野猫”管理方面的发展趋势，即从致死方法转向非致死性的诱捕-绝育-放归（TNR）方法。该综述探讨了这些无人饲养、自由放养的猫出现在我们社区所引发的各种问题（如人畜共患病和野生动物捕食）、利益相关者的利益以及管理选择——所有这些都是基于当时可获取的信息。然而，该综述遗漏了对TNR日益普及背后不断变化的伦理观念的探讨。在本文中，我们探讨了美国社区猫管理的伦理层面，这体现在总体上“不杀生运动”的发展态势中，特别是TNR的发展态势。我们认为，这些强大的文化潮流反映了两种相互关联的伦理理论：（1）一种以动物为中心的伦理观念，即认识到非人类动物的内在价值超越了对人类的任何工具性价值；（2）一种美德伦理，即认识到在决定如何最好地管理社区猫时，“情感”考量（如同情心）的合理性。
