ABSTRACT
Lethal interventions into the lives of nonhuman animals are usually averred to be guided by science. Science can help generate relevant information, but it is not enough to decide how we should relate to animals. The field of ethics evolved to examine human conduct and provide prescriptions for how we should relate to other beings, yet it remains the least prominent discourse for interventions in wildlife management – and particularly for wildlife perceived as threatening, such as carnivores. Here, we present well-established scientific and ethical arguments for nonhuman animals being part of our moral community and deserving moral consideration, and assert that animal ethics should play a critical role in the development of policies whose main activity entails harming or killing animals. To contextualize our arguments, we provide an ethical examination of the laws and regulations governing grey wolf management in the state of Wisconsin, USA, since federal protections were removed (2012–2014). We analyze the texts of relevant laws and regulations to determine what ethical arguments were considered when establishing them. We present potential corrections and recommend remedies for embedding ethics into the regulations. We conclude by synthesizing a vision for wildlife management for the 21st century that explicitly considers and retains ethics in our intrusions into the lives of animals.
