Re-Thinking Felid–Human Entanglements through the Lenses of Compassionate Conservation and Multispecies Studies

With many felid species in widespread decline, re-thinking the messy felid–human entanglements is a necessary step for fostering coexistence as current conservation frameworks centered on human exceptionalism and widespread violence toward wild animals are conspicuously failing felids. This paper ar...

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Published inAnimals (Basel) Vol. 12; no. 21; p. 2996
Main Authors Steinhardt, Margarita, Pratt, Susanne, Ramp, Daniel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 31.10.2022
MDPI
Subjects
Aggression
Animals
Anthropocentrism
Cattle
Coexistence
Cohabitation
compassionate conservation
Conservation
Environmental protection
Ethics
Exceptionalism
felidae
Humanities
Interdisciplinary aspects
Livestock
multispecies studies
Ontology
Predators
Science
Social sciences
Values
Wild animals
Wildlife conservation
Los Angeles California
United States > US
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Summary:With many felid species in widespread decline, re-thinking the messy felid–human entanglements is a necessary step for fostering coexistence as current conservation frameworks centered on human exceptionalism and widespread violence toward wild animals are conspicuously failing felids. This paper argues for fostering a critical awareness of how we understand our relationships with nonhuman animals, particularly in the context of conservation. We bring two distinct but related interdisciplinary fields into a dialogue to critically question the values and conceptual assumptions that frame the practices of felid conservation today. Compassionate conservation and multispecies studies share many synergies and conceptual overlaps despite emerging from different academic domains. We identified four key areas for further exploration: (1) A shift in emphasis from practices of killing to the underlying assumptions that make forms of killing permissible and ethically unproblematic. (2) Re-engagement with individuals, not just species, in conservation settings. (3) Unsettling human exceptionalism through an emphasis on the agency of animals and an ethic involving compassion. (4) Acknowledging the ways in which humans co-become with other animals and cultivating relationships of multispecies cohabitation and flourishing.
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ISSN:2076-2615
2076-2615
DOI:10.3390/ani12212996