The Subjugation of Canadian Wildlife: Failures of Principle and Policy by Max Foran

Abstract

Max Foran’s The Subjugation of Canadian Wildlife argues that wildlife management and, by association, conservation are implicated in discriminatory anthropocentric practices that diminish biodiversity, protected areas, and marine ecosystems and dominate wildlife. Foran links the humancentric speciesism associated with animal domination to Aristotelian and Stoic philosophy and early Christianity. From there, he outlines the historical contours of what he calls the “dominant belief system.” This belief system includes a combination of the indirect duties argument, which suggested that humans benefited from extending kindness to animals (Immanuel Kant 1724–1804), and utilitarianism (Jeremy Bentham 1784–1832), which advocated maximizing utility or causing the least pain. This belief system, Foran suggests, later evolved in the early nineteenth century to expand into what is now known as the “classic animal welfare” position. This position advocates pursuing an anti-cruelty policy for animals while maintaining their use to humans. According to Foran, this belief system has not evolved since. Instead, human exceptionalism and entitlement to animal exploitation based on underdeveloped linguistic and cognitive capacities are commonplace. The Subjugation of Wildlife offers a thorough assessment of the current status of wildlife management and conservation in Canada. Foran offers examples from each of the provinces and territories to illustrate the consistency of the dominant belief system that underlies wildlife policy in this country. In addition to individual species, he lists failures in habitat protection, climate change policy, and the subjective application of wildlife risk markers (e.g., “concern,” “at risk,” and “extinct”). The introduction provides readers with the philosophical underpinning and overarching argument for the remainder of the book. Here, Foran summarizes the significant human moral and ethical positions that support our contemporary utilitarian/humanist approach to wildlife conservation and management.