The end of animal life: a start for ethical debate: Ethical and societal considerations on killing animals

Killing animals is common practice, yet it is not normal. The end of animal life is related to many societal and ethical questions and concerns. Questions such as how long should we continue to treat an animal before killing it? But also the question whether it could be legitimate to kill individual animals for the welfare of the herd or future generations. The ongoing public and academic discussions on these, and on other well-known questions like those related to the killing of animals for food or scientific purposes, show that there is no one standard evaluation of animal life. This book is an edited volume that enables the reader to get grip on that plurality of views with regard to animals. I helps to deal with the many questions related to the end of animal life. The chapters show how the plurality of views on killing animals is related to moral presuppositions by providing a clear overview on the ethical views on end of life decisions. Furthermore, the book contains a number of applied studies of the ethical questions related to killing animals in various practices including wildlife management, fishing and fish farming, animal experimentation and livestock farming. These chapters can help veterinarians, scientists, policy makers and many other professionals working with animals to easily get a good overview of the issues at stake and contribute to responsible decisions with regard to the end of animal life.