282
30.2 Ethical Prioritizing
In considering every conservation effort to prioritize, arduous ethical choices on a
battlefield predicated upon scientific methods arrive at a homogeneous philosophy
that prizes efficiency above all else, regardless of such outcomes as those painful
criteria driving triage and self-destruction. If a feral cat—the beloved Cheshire
cat—is deemed (in many countries of the world) a predator, and the means of sterilizing and containing the cat are ignored (2–6.3 million feral cats move across the
whole of Australia, and are believed to “kill hundreds of millions of native birds”
11
each year), then who precisely takes the moral high ground against the efforts to
poison all of those cats? In the United States it is estimated that there are 86 million
cats, but, according to ornithologist Pete Marra, in charge of the Smithsonian
Migratory Bird Center, the majority of them stay indoors and cannot be thought
culpable for an estimated 33 species extinctions worldwide thus far documented to
have involved free-roaming cats. That said, researchers believe that the several million outdoor cats in America kill approximately “2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion
small mammals” annually.
12
No continent is free of the sum total of eco-dynamics,
including what it is convenient if malicious to label noxious weeds and bioinvasives,
but the double-bind ethically undermining every philosophical best practice is the
reality that “any group of organisms can become bio-invasive….”
13
The ratio of
indigenous to bioinvasive species per country (relying on human boundaries) is
unknown, but is likely to be high. For example, in 2007 a New Zealand government
study indicated that out of the existing 90,000 native species, 30% were invasives.
14
Moreover, some have argued that this prodigious transmission can, in fact, represent
11 See “Feral Cats in Australia Sentenced to Death by Sausage,” by Windy Weisberger, Live
Science, April 30, 2019, https://www.livescience.com/65356-australia-feral-cats-poison-sausages.
html, Accessed March 17, 2020.
12 See also “The Moral Cost of Cats -A bird-loving scientist calls for an end to outdoor cats ‘once
and for all,’” Smithsonian Magazine, by Rachel E. Gross, September 19, 2016; republished August
14, 2020. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-moral-cost-of-cats?utm_source=pocket-newtab,
Accessed August 14, 2020. At least “1.4 million” stray cats that end up in U.S. shelters are euthanized every year.
13 ibid.; see also Prognosis Disaster: The Environment, Climate Change, Human Influences,
Vectors, Disease and the Possible End of Humanity? by David Arieti, Jacob Nieva, and Randolph
Swiller, Authorhouse Publishers, 2011, p. 62.
14 That percentage included 25,000 non-native plant species, 2000 invertebrate species, and 54 nonnative mammals, including humans. See “Environment New Zealand 2007,” Ref: ME847.
30 Ecological Double-Binds
30.2 Ethical Prioritizing
In considering every conservation effort to prioritize, arduous ethical choices on a
battlefield predicated upon scientific methods arrive at a homogeneous philosophy
that prizes efficiency above all else, regardless of such outcomes as those painful
criteria driving triage and self-destruction. If a feral cat—the beloved Cheshire
cat—is deemed (in many countries of the world) a predator, and the means of sterilizing and containing the cat are ignored (2–6.3 million feral cats move across the
whole of Australia, and are believed to “kill hundreds of millions of native birds”
11
each year), then who precisely takes the moral high ground against the efforts to
poison all of those cats? In the United States it is estimated that there are 86 million
cats, but, according to ornithologist Pete Marra, in charge of the Smithsonian
Migratory Bird Center, the majority of them stay indoors and cannot be thought
culpable for an estimated 33 species extinctions worldwide thus far documented to
have involved free-roaming cats. That said, researchers believe that the several million outdoor cats in America kill approximately “2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion
small mammals” annually.
12
No continent is free of the sum total of eco-dynamics,
including what it is convenient if malicious to label noxious weeds and bioinvasives,
but the double-bind ethically undermining every philosophical best practice is the
reality that “any group of organisms can become bio-invasive….”
13
The ratio of
indigenous to bioinvasive species per country (relying on human boundaries) is
unknown, but is likely to be high. For example, in 2007 a New Zealand government
study indicated that out of the existing 90,000 native species, 30% were invasives.
14
Moreover, some have argued that this prodigious transmission can, in fact, represent
11 See “Feral Cats in Australia Sentenced to Death by Sausage,” by Windy Weisberger, Live
Science, April 30, 2019, https://www.livescience.com/65356-australia-feral-cats-poison-sausages.
html, Accessed March 17, 2020.
12 See also “The Moral Cost of Cats -A bird-loving scientist calls for an end to outdoor cats ‘once
and for all,’” Smithsonian Magazine, by Rachel E. Gross, September 19, 2016; republished August
14, 2020. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-moral-cost-of-cats?utm_source=pocket-newtab,
Accessed August 14, 2020. At least “1.4 million” stray cats that end up in U.S. shelters are euthanized every year.
13 ibid.; see also Prognosis Disaster: The Environment, Climate Change, Human Influences,
Vectors, Disease and the Possible End of Humanity? by David Arieti, Jacob Nieva, and Randolph
Swiller, Authorhouse Publishers, 2011, p. 62.
14 That percentage included 25,000 non-native plant species, 2000 invertebrate species, and 54 nonnative mammals, including humans. See “Environment New Zealand 2007,” Ref: ME847.
30 Ecological Double-Binds