Hi all, I am a doctoral researcher from the University of Turku in Finland. I am starting an online investigation on the Human-horse relationship and the interlink between human personality, attachment theory and the horse environment.

We are looking for horse owners world wide to respond to our survey.

https://link.webropol.com/s/humanhorsesurvey

Thank you for your help.

https://preview.redd.it/zcluwfoeu9cb1.jpg?width=791&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6c65a5b4f3cc0a668f619f5c1326ebdcce7a2ea

hello! i would really love it if you could all (uk residents only) take my dissertation survey on animal welfare being taught in schools:

https://forms.office.com/e/ZhDReyUdmk

tysm <3

I have an ethical conundrum on my hands, and I'd love to get the perspective of someone who shares my values (ethical veganism) but has scientific/professional/academic experience with North American wildlife.

Is there anyone here who is an ethical vegan and has the free time and emotional bandwidth to answer some questions and offer advice?

hey guys could you all fill in my small questionnaire (will take around 5 minutes to complete) its on elephants and their welfare in captivity. thank you :)

The main Fertility Control used on large herbivores, PZP, is the membrane from around a pig egg, we have been able to make egg cells and grow them to maturity in labs , are their any other steps needed before humane sourcing of PZP is theoretically possible, or do we just need to apply the research to pig cells.

Hey guys, I am trying to figure out my views towards animal suffering in the wild and what to do about it. First of all, I dont want to offend anyone who might have different views, although I am kind off skeptical to the expression that suffering outweighs pleasure, especially when it is done by using our concepts for life satisfaction. I also like the work done by Groff and Plant in this regard. Anyways, it does not really matter from an ethical perspective, since suffering is something we should deal with anyways.

I can only see one way in which it matters: I can see myself supporting careful research for animal welfare and suffering, but at the same time I feel like I dont want to support the reduction of habitat or ecosystems for different reasons. I have seen support for it from different sides. What do you think about these things?

I can give you some reasons why I dont want to support habitat reduction or the opposition to habitat conservation:

• I think we have reason to believe that more stable or mature ecosystems have a higher rate of k-selected animals (correct me if im wrong) and possible a higher degree of mutual aid in that ecosystem then in less stable or complex ecosystems (even if we would oppose the conservation of forests for example, I dont see how that stops pest species from procreating in the area, with the reason that there would be no species that could possibly have better lifes)
• Also Ecosystems are, as far as I am concerned, needed to sustain the life of all other entities on the planet, including us. Would taking a position against habitat protection not boil down to a position where one is against life in general (im not saying that there are no arguments for this position, I just find myself rather opposed to it for different reasons, one would be because i hold a valuable container view on life). Also, the degradation of ecosystem would be a rather painful way of reducing life, I suppose.
• When talking well being and value, I have another question. How do we value "flourishing" vs "pleasure". Pleasure seems to be mostly relevant in purely hedonistic utilitarian accounts, although a lot of ethicists have different views about that (although suffering is pretty surely in some way a negative thing in all or most of them)
• The uncertainty of the quality of life for animals, or the difference of general mindstates of animals (im NOT denying the amount of pain, im rather questioning how reliable our thoughts on what it is like to live in the wild are. Id like to refer to the accounts for tribal people and there thoughts on alienation from nature)

Again, i do not oppose welfare biology and attempts to help sentient beings. What interests me though, is the stands towards life and natural habitats as a whole. Im interested what you guys think about that, since you probably spent more time researching these subjects. From my normally more ecological perspective, I find the view interesting that we are a part of nature ourselves and could perhaps improve our alienation with nature and the natural process itself by engaging with the suffering that is occuring. Clearing up these doubts will definetly help me to see which organisations and movements I want to support and which I dont.

Sources:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333854101_Does_suffering_dominate_enjoyment_in_the_animal_kingdom_An_update_to_welfare_biology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_Aid:_A_Factor_of_Evolution#:~:text=Mutual%20Aid%3A%20A%20Factor%20of%20Evolution%20is%20a%201902%20collection,and%20anarchist%20philosopher%20Peter%20Kropotkin.&text=Mutual%20Aid%20is%20considered%20a%20fundamental%20text%20in%20anarchist%20communism.

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edit: valuable container theories:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_55cmhHq3g&list=PLEA18FAF1AD9047B0&index=20

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