Animal welfare

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Animals currently make up the vast majority of sentient beings. As many as 2.8 trillion animals might be killed for food each year, and there are many more wild animals.[1]  Although many experts agree that animals display some signs of sentience, it remains an open question which animals are sentient, and how we should compare welfare between different sentient species.

Despite its importance, this focus areaanimal welfare is highly neglected: animal charities receive only 3% of charitable donations, and 99% of that money is focused on pets, who make up less than 0.1% of all domesticated animals.[1]

Some have argued that, if one takes the view that future beings matter morally, interventions that seek to reduceimprove short-term animal sufferingwelfare may not be as cost-effective as interventions that seek to influence the far future., given the astronomical number of animals that could potentially exist. In response, others have argued that attempts to improve short-term animal welfare will also have strong beneficialstrongly positive indirect long-term effects on the far future..[1] An objection to that argument is that it would be remarkable if an intervention selected for its short-term effects just happened to have better long-run consequences than all other interventions.[3] In addition, critics have noted that there are theoretical reasons for expecting human interventions focused on humans to have better long-run effects than animal interventions.interventions focused on animals.[4] The considerations bearing on this issue are numerous, complex, and hard to assess, and the debate is currently unresolved.[5]

Animal welfare is a core focus area within effective altruism. It focuses on ways to improve the wellbeing of nonhuman animals, primarily in factory farms and in the wild.

Animals currently make up the vast majority of sentient beings. As many as 2.8 trillion animals might be killed for food each year, and there are many more animals in the wild. animals.[1]  Although many experts agree that animals display some signs of sentience, it remains an open question which animals are sentient, and how we should compare welfare between species. Nevertheless, the welfare of animals is potentially a hugely important issue.

Animals currently make up the vast majority of sentient beings. As many as 2.8 trillion animals might be killed for food each year, and there are many more animals in the wild (Reese 2016).[1]  Although many experts agree that animals display some signs of sentience, it remains an open question which animals are sentient, and how we should compare welfare between species. Nevertheless, the welfare of animals is potentially a hugely important issue.

Despite its importance, this focus area is highly neglected: animal charities receive only 3% of charitable donations, and 99% of that money is focused on pets, who make up less than 0.1% of all domesticated animals (Reese 2016).animals.[1]

The area also appears to be somewhat tractable. Open Philanthropy estimates that past corporate cage-free campaigns have spared about 120 years of suffering in battery cages per dollar donated (Bollard 2016).donated.[2]

Some have argued that, if one takes the view that future beings matter morally, interventions that seek to reduce short-term animal suffering may not be as cost-effective as interventions that seek to influence the far future. In response, others have argued that animal welfare will also have strong beneficial effects on the far future (Reese 2016).future.[1] An objection to that argument is that it would be remarkable if an intervention selected for its short-term effects just happened to have better long-run consequences than all other interventions (Lewis 2016).interventions.[3] In addition, critics have noted that there are theoretical reasons for expecting human interventions to have better long-run effects than animal interventions (Cotton-Barratt 2014).interventions.[4] The considerations bearing on this issue are numerous, complex, and hard to assess, and the debate is currently unresolved (Tomasik 2016).unresolved.[5]

BibliographyFurther reading

Bollard, Lewis (2016) Initial grants to support corporate cage-free reforms, Open Philanthropy, March 31.
A report estimating the cost-effectiveness of corporate cage-free reforms.

Cotton-Barratt, Owen (2014) Human and animal interventions: the long- term view, Effective Altruism Forum, June 2.
A blog post outlining some considerations for thinking that human interventions are more effective than animal interventions.

Lewis, Gregory (2016) Beware surprising and suspicious convergence, Effective Altruism Forum, January 24.
A blog post arguing that we should be skeptical of arguments concluding that some intervention best attains some goal, when this intervention was chosen because it was perceived to be optimal in attaining a different, unrelated goal.

Reese, Jacy (2016) Why animals matter for effective altruism, Effective Altruism Forum, August 22.
An essay making the case for animal welfare as a top focus area of the effective altruism community.

Tomasik, Brian (2011) Risks of astronomical future suffering, Center on Long-Term Risk, December.
A discussion of the long-run future, with some discussion of animal issues.

  1. ^

    Reese, Jacy (2016) Why animals matter for effective altruism, Effective Altruism Forum, August 22.

  2. ^

    Bollard, Lewis (2016) Initial grants to support corporate cage-free reforms, Open Philanthropy, March 31.

  3. ^

    Lewis, Gregory (2016) Beware surprising and suspicious convergence, Effective Altruism Forum, January 24.

  4. ^

    Cotton-Barratt, Owen (2014) Human and animal interventions: the long- term view, Effective Altruism Forum, June 2.

  5. ^

    Tomasik, Brian (2011) Risks of astronomical future suffering, Center on Long-Term Risk, December.

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