Oscar Horta of the University of Santiago de Compostela on how we can best help wild animals

“The main work that really needs to be carried out here is work in the intersection of animal welfare science and the science of ecology and other fields in life science… You could also build a career, not as a scientist, but say, in public administration or government. And you can reach a position in policy-making that can be relevant for the field, so there are plenty of different options there… Getting other interventions accepted and implemented would require significant lobby work. And that’s why having people, for instance, if you have people who are sympathetic to reducing wild animal suffering, and they are working in, say, national parks administration or working with the agricultural authorities, forest authorities, or whatever, these people could really make a significant difference.”

• Oscar Horta

Animals in the wild suffer, often to a large degree, because of natural disasters, parasites, disease, starvation, and other causes. But what can we do as individuals to help them? What are the most urgent priorities?

Oscar Horta is a Professor of philosophy at the University of Santiago de Compostela and a co-founder of the nonprofit Animal Ethics. He has published and lectured in English and other languages on topics including speciesism and wild animal welfare.

Topics discussed in the episode:

• Why should animal advocates and researchers think more carefully about the definition of speciesism? (1:40)
• Why Oscar believes framing our messaging in terms in speciesism and focusing on attitudes rather than behavior would help advocates to do more good (9:10)
• How relevant is existing research to the proposed research field of welfare biology, that would consider wild animals among other animals, and how can we integrate it? (16:40)
• What sorts of research are most urgently needed to advance the field of welfare biology and how can people go about pursuing this? (21:13)
• Careers related to helping wild animals in policy (36:10)
• What you can do if you already work at an animal advocacy organization or are interested in growing the field in other ways (39:45)
• The size of the current wild animal welfare movement in and the work of relevant nonprofits (51:40)
• How can we most effectively build support for this sort of work among other animal advocates and effective altruists? (57:33)
• How can we most effectively build a new academic field? (1:02:49)
• To what extent is public-facing advocacy desirable at this point? (1:10:09)

Resources discussed in the episode are available at https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/podcast

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