Like all moral decisions, most are not so cut and dry, as one decision does
only harm and another does only good.  Soon, we human beings will have to
sacrifice some reproductive freedom ourselves.  Not just about abortion, but
number of children per couple. China, (that horrible evil country), has had to
face these decisions sooner than the West, as their society was thousands of
years old, when Europeans were just beginning to annihilate the Native
American human and non-human population.
Predictions are for the population in the U.S. to approach 500 million midway
through the 21st century.  If deer lacked habitat before, it will most all be
occupied by humans then.  Of course, another pseudo-deer population explosion
will be invented, and the philanthropic hunters will offer their services to
the rest of us.  I venture to say that most humans, and deer alike would
rather render some degree of choice in how many dozen offspring we create, in
order to preclude a situation where we would be killed because there are too
many of "our kind".  Painful, inconvenient, frightening might any form of
contraception be, but certainly better than a bullet in the head or an arrow
embedded in the abdomen.  Just as human contraception used to be fraught with
many side effects, with time and willingness to work through the problems, it
would be become less traumatic for deer populations, (and hopefully other
animals that are brutally killed in the most barbaric traps).  I have had
similar reservations,(about immunocontraception), but still feel it would save
them much more suffering than hunting them to control their numbers.  Just as
some people predict that human population may plataeu at some pleasant level,
there have been studies that show that as food supply gradually decreases that
fertility will decline comparably, without any starvation, (of course some
pretty scrawny deer).   That said, I believe we should try to develop oral
contraception for deer, that could be put in feed at feeding stations, that
would only be used when population density reached a critical number.  The
biggest obstacle is,(ironically!), that hunters themselves, have opposed oral
contraception, since the deer would not be marked, and then heaven forbid they
might get "some hormones" in the victim that they slay.

Peace for All Beings
Jamey Lee West



JOSH WINCHELL <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I am curious if discussions regarding the ethics of immunocontraception for
wildlife management has occurred at some point on this list?  If so, where
in the archives could this thread be found? If not, I would be very
interested in moving such a thread along.

There has already been a good deal of discussion between hunters and
anti-hunters about the RELATIVE merits and drawbacks of immunocontraception
and sport hunting as management tools. However, discussion about the ethics
of  wildlife birth-control is very hard to find.

It seems such a discussion might focus on a few areas.

Practical matters:
- PZP, the most promising wildlife immunocontraceptive, is made from pig
ovaries. These ovaries are not obtained solely from those pigs who decided
to pursue family/litter planning.
- Live-trapping wild animals to hand-inject contraceptive is stressful to
the animal and can lead to stress-related mortality in some cases. 

Wildlife rights:
- From an A-R perspective, how are wildlife reproductive rights handled? Do
such rights even exist?
- What about pursuit of happiness? (In reference to those deer and feral
horses & burros who are American citizens)
- Any different from a animal welfare perspective?
Cleveland Amory apparently wasn't too concerned about rights issues when he
stated, "Prey will be separated from predator, and there will be no
overpopulation or starvation because all will be controlled by sterilization
or implant."

Other angles: 
In general, where do enviro-ethics thinkers (that's means you) fall out on
the use of biotechnology for long-term management of wildlife populations?
What does this say about our relationship with the natural world?


Looking forward to hearing to hearing your thoughts.


-Joshua






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