The usual pit bull debates made me wonder this but I don’t want to derail this into a discussion about how wonderful/evil pit bulls are so let’s leave them out.
Given that domesticated animal breeds are a direct result of human intervention and given that elimination of a singular breed does not affect the species as a whole nor the natural/ecological order of things, would it be morally wrong to eliminate a breed of dog (or cat or horse, etc)?
If, for example, the Powers That Be decided that we’ve had just about enough out of wire-haired fox terriers and so the existing dogs would not be allowed to breed, leading to their demise in a generation, would it be a “wrong” thing? I understand that one might protest the Powers That Be throwing their weight around but I’m speaking specifically about the notion of breed elimination.
Or, to go another route, if there was a virus discovered that only affected wire-haired fox terriers, would there be a strong moral obligation to preserve the breed? Or would it be acceptable to say “Well, at least the rest of Canis lupus familiaris is doing just fine”.
Hmmm. I think that one has an obligation to prevent a breed from being destroyed, but not from dying out on it’s own. It’s the difference between a book vanishing because no one likes it, and between it vanishing because someone burns all the copies. The fact that people care enough to preserve the breed is enough to give the breed value. I’d oppose a command by the Canine Overlords to sterilize all fox terriers or shoot the poor things, but if no one likes fox terriers and they vanish by interbreeding into muttdom, oh well.
Wow. That’s exactly what I was coming in here to say. I hate to do a “me too” post, but considering it’s probably the only time DT and I have ever completely agreed like this, I had to make note of it.
Yeah, it’s not often I agree with DT either…but I have to say that he pretty much nailed this one. There is no moral obligation to keep a breed existing…but that doesn’t mean we should go out and whack them all either. If people don’t want them, then the breed will die out. C’est la vie.
Certainly. I don’t know of any specific examples off the top of my head, but I recall that several breeds have died out in history…and some times attempts have been made to bring back (or re-breed) older, defunct breeds.
Well, not to go off-track of your question about ethics, how on earth would the doggie overlords accomplish this? What if I have two fox terriers and I breed them? Just try to stop me!
I don’t think there is any added moral responsibilty, whether the possible extinction is by human hands or not. The best I can describe it is that I don’t think there’s any moral difference between humans killing 10 animals of a breed and killing the last 10 animals of a breed. I may have problems with how the animals are killed, by that they’re the last doesn’t add or detract anything from if it’s bad or not to me.
There’s nothing special about a breed of dog or cat or pig or duck. It’s a related set of animals, bred to have specific traits. Does the fact that someone in the past wanted an all white cat with long silky hair make a Turkish Angora special? No, it just means that in the past, human selection replaced natural selection.
If anything, there are breeds that are so badly warped from the original animal that I’m not sure they are worth keeping around. Tea-cup dogs?
The moral problem is that you are destroying something with those last ten dogs that you aren’t destroying by just killing ten of a horde; the specific genetic mix that makes that breed what it is.
I agree. There is no moral responsibility of preserving a breed of animal. Not in the sense that there is a moral sanction against wiping out an entire species. In fact, dogs and wolves are the same species, so you could let domestic dogs die out and the species would remain intact.
Even the idea of wiping out a species isn’t so cut and dry. Would it be morally reprehensible to wipe out a species of single celled organisms that cause a human disease? How about if we got rid of mosquitoes? If not, then what’s the problem with wiping out some mammal? I wouldn’t want to see one wiped out, but that’s because an animal species has value to me, not some intrinsic value in and of itself. Species go extinct all the time, often because of competition from other species. We’re just there in the mix.
n.b.: I’m not advocating that we wipe out whole species just for the heck of it. I’m actually a strong conservationist. But the moral responsibility is to ourselves (and future generations of humans), not to the animals.
Well, I have to bring up the pit bull thing even though the OP wanted to steer clear of that. There are certain cities and states in the US that are enacting, or trying to enact, breed specific legislation targeting pit bulls. For instance, I think Colorado has enacted such laws, and I think California is trying to as well.
BSL legislation basically outlaws a particular breed of dog. So, if someone really had a grudge against fox terriers, and could offer compelling evidence to voters and legislators that fox terriers were a menace, they could outlaw them within their municipality.
I don’t feel that there’s moral imperative to preserve a breed (species are a different story) but I do take issue with TPTB trying to eliminate a particular breed.
(Sorry, OP, I hope I didn’t just totally derail the thread)
I’m going to help you derail it a little further. You have a good point, but in order to even come close to wiping out a breed, there would have to be a world-wide ban, or someone, somewhere, will keep the breed going (unless, as in Der Trihs’ post, somehow everyone simultaneously loses interest in that breed).
ETA: And even if there WAS a world-wide ban, it would be awfully hard to enforce.
But I do digress…how it would happen is beside the point when discussing a philosophical question such as this one.
There are already several breeds that were once recognized by the American Kennel Club that have become extinct.
For example, in the retriever group, the St Johns Labrador and Newfoundland are both now extinct. The White English Terrier, forerunner of the Boston Terrier, is also extinct. The Tweed Water Spaniel, a forerunner of the Golden Retriever is extinct. The Rottweiler nearly became extinct around WWI time; if not for a few exported from Germany to the USA between the wars, that breed would be gone now.
So if there is a moral responsibility, we’ve been failing in this.
On the other hand, you’re not necessarily destroying any particular genes by destroying the breed. Canis lupus has proven to have a great deal of morphological plasticity. If it was done once (“it” being the creation of any particular breed), then so long as we still have the “originals”, we can theoretically do it again. Granted, it would take a bit of time, but still.
