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04/18/23
1
The Ethics The Ethics
of Culling of Culling
ElephantsElephants
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Should elephants be culled?
• Three stories…
– Ian Whyte
– Sipho Morake
– Jason Smith
• Culling elephants is…
– an international issue
– at odds with conservation?
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Recent history of elephants in Africa
– demand for ivory
•reduced numbers from 1.3 million to
609,000
– in Africa 1979 – 1989
•CITES ban on trade in elephant products
1989
–did achieve reduction in poaching
–poaching in KNP? 285
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Kruger’s dilemma: A case study
– how many were there long ago in the area?
•historical evidence not many
– 1967 aerial count: 6,586
•decide – 7,000 as limit [“carrying
capacity”]
•annual aerial census [helicopter]
•decide then on removal quota
–capture, translocation, culling
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Kruger now?
– current practice
• moratorium: stopped culling in 1994
– challenged by animal rights group
• numbers?
– not 7,000
– but 9,150 [1999]
– 11,671 [2003]
– impact on biodiversity?
– “park destroyed in 10 years’ time”?
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Should elephants be culled?
• Part 1 – Should we manage elephant populations?
• “Hands off elephants?”
– The nature of the issue
1. A complex set of intersecting issues
2. Even no decision is a major decision, because of the consequences.
3. Science has information, not answers. Emotions have attitudes, not solutions.
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Conclusion 1:
• It is our choice, based on our ethics, what we want from conservation areas
• This eventually ends up as guidelines for management practices.
• There is no scientific information & data that forces us to make a definite choice one way or the other.
• Emotions must be critically interrogated to become meaningful guides to action in conjunction with reason and ethics.
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Against culling [1]: "Leave nature alone: Don't interfere."
• allow nature to run its course; establish own balance
• firm scientific evidence from many disciplines
• let nature be; elephant problem will sort itself out
• problems:
– damage may take centuries to recover, if ever
– risk irreplaceable areas of pristine natural beauty?
– story: Daphne Sheldrick in Tsavo 1970–1971
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Environmental laissez faire
• dying of starvation over a period of weeks shot by a rifle from a helicopter within two minutes?
• drought & human inaction and omission
• mistaken assumption; “nature…”
– ecological processes operate at large scales
• pristine wilderness areas have shrunk dramatically.
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Conservation areas
• sanctuaries for wildlife
• small islands of wilderness
– amidst the African lake of human settlements
• established to protect wildlife from extinction
– human population growth
– exploitation and destruction through hunting
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Conservation areas
• artificial constructions & sites of human interference
– examples
•“fences”
•rivers
•artificial water-holes
•cattle
•exotic plant material
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• goal of the conservation of wilderness areas
– protect natural world diversity
• why not use the concept biodiversity?
– because I want to deliberately include…
•all forms of life…
•…as well as landscapes
•places of geological interest
•ecological processes & ecosystems
•water systems
•genetic diversity, and so on
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• We must interfere to correct unacceptable human influences that disturb nature’s balance
otherwise we will merely condone human intervention and interference that occur anyway.
Conclusion 2:
• Humans have already massively interfered with nature and must take responsibility for this interference
• therefore we ought to interfere responsibly to conserve pristine wilderness areas in as natural a state as possible for future generations.
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Against culling [2]: “Animals have rights and thus no elephant may be
shot” • harshest critics of culling = animal rights activists
• do animals really have rights?
• do all sentient beings have interests we must protect?
• “let them be!”
• keep “human predators out of their affairs”
– animals cannot administer their own rights
– cull elephants to protect the rights of millions of other living beings?
– story: Knobnose & Doughnut
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Conclusion 3:
• Elephants are very special animals [mammals] that deserve treatment with respect.
• But, they are not rights bearers at the same level as human beings
• They are not necessarily deserving of much more respect than dogs or lions.
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Against culling [3]: “Ban human utilization of conservation areas”
• link to culling? abattoirs
• conservation areas used by human beings?
• political preconditions for their existence
• goal = conservation of natural world diversity
• NB
– conservation areas can have multiple uses
– can induce complex, diverse human experiences
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Four uses of conservation areas
1. deep appreciation - in awe of its wonders
– a humbling experience
2. interests of the current generation
– must have access & an opportunity to visit
Conclusion 4: We cannot ignore the interests of tourists… manage with the utmost care to portray natural world diversity at its best.
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Four uses of conservation areas
3. future generations
– must have similar opportunities to ours
– pristine, wilderness areas: once lost, gone forever
4. pragmatic uses
– the benefits we don’t yet know
– the benefits we do know
•story: Joshua
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Must we reject sustainable use of wildlife?
• reasonable moral pluralism
• cultural-ethical imperialism?
• Can rich, privileged First World environmental activists impose their cultural and personal ethical views about deeply controversial moral issues of hunting and eating meat…
• …on poor African rural peasants with centuries of traditions of sustainable use of African wildlife having minimal impact on the environment?
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Conclusion 5
• We cannot ignore …people living next to wildlife sanctuaries; ….the history of their neglect…, or their exploitation through the expropriation of their land for conservation purposes
• The legitimacy of conservation… can be established partly through benefiting the people most closely affected by conservation in their daily lives, those who often bear the cost of conservation…
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Interlude – A case for intervention
• to protect natural ecological processes
– reverse or neutralize human interference
• treat animals with respect to preserve their lives
– intervene when absolutely necessary in conflicts to promote the diversities of the natural world
• humans have multiple uses for conservation areas.
– respect such uses if they do not spoil or harm the preservation of natural world diversities
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Part 2 – Is culling elephants ethical?
• current management options
– simulation of nature, translocation, contraception, and culling
• ethically acceptable?
• all four are ethically flawed
• an issue in the “real world”
• strive to realize the best of several bad options
• best option by far - not to interfere with elephants
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Simulate nature: uncertain experiments
• eliminate all human interventions
– e.g. waterholes
– will keep numbers at acceptable levels
experimental ideas not yet proven workable
• kill young calves between 4 and 9 years old
– they would die in droughts anyway
cruel to mothers and herds?
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Translocation: ambiguous export
• story: Douw Grobler
• a high risk operation
• limited trauma of translocation…
– ethically better than culling
• translocation almost excluded as option…
– vacancies in elephant habitat are scarce
– merely temporarily exporting the elephant problem to other conservation areas
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Conclusion 6 - Translocation
• Although expensive, one of the ethically most acceptable ways of dealing with overpopulation
• the procedure is risky, the animals are traumatized, and they are severely disoriented
• At least they are still alive and can enjoy the company of their core family group.
• Translocation has limited value, as the demand for elephants is minimal compared to the supply.
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Contraception: a possible, though perhaps flawed solution still under
investigation
• a long-term solution?
• pZP “one shot vaccine” for five years & safe
• behavioral change & practical?
• “a promising alternative” and “might soon”
• wait for long term scientific studies
• logistics and cost of vaccination
• invasive method
• allo-mothering?
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Conclusion 7
• presents the apparent promise of a successful non-violent intervention to limit elephant numbers
• raises ethical issues – a chemical invasion
• this method should be used judiciously in small elephant herds on an experimental basis, and be carefully studied and monitored
• perhaps in future well-supported evidence might show this method to be ethically best justified, as well as logistically feasible.
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“The killing fields of culling”
• stories: Andrew & Katy Payne
• Culling is gruesome.
– In an ideal world we should not even consider it.
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[1] Culling only to deal with a serious and imminent threat to the continued existence of the rich diversities of the natural world.
• Reasons must be firmly supported by the best available scientific information
• The optimum number requires a complex judgment:
how many elephants to fulfill their creative ecosystemic function of opening up woodland
to establish habitat requirements,
open up living space, and
generate opportunities for other species to flourish.
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[2] Culling can never be the first option, but must be the only option left to avoid a conservation disaster
[4] well-trained, professional teams should avoid prolonging any suffering by killing the elephants as humanely as possible in as short a time as possible [debriefing, counselling?]
[5] The number of elephants to be culled must be proportionate to the threat they pose.
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[6] As much as possible of the evidence of a culling must be removed from the conservation area for the sake of the elephants.
[7] One could argue a case that magnificent trophy animals ought to be excluded from culling…
The case for not killing elephants in special relationships with humans needs almost no argument.
[8] If culling is justified in a specific case, then the meat, hide, and ivory must be utilized to the benefit of conservation.
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Conclusion 8
• If culling is to be used, it must only be used as a last resort once reasonable people judge that all possible other options have been explored and exhausted
• If chosen, culling must be done as humanely as possible.