ANIMAL WELFARISM, AND THE PROBLEM OF

Many environmentalists criticize as unecological the emphasis that ani-mal liberationists and animal rights theorists place on preventing animal suffering. The strong form of their objection holds that both theories ab-surdly entail a duty to intervene in wild predation. The weak form holds that animal welfarists must at least regard predation as bad, and that this stance reflects an arrogance toward nature that true environmentalists should reject. This paper disputes both versions of the predation critique. Animal welfarists are not committed to protecting the rabbit from the fox, nor do their principles implicitly deprecate nature. The rift between environmental ethicists and animal rights or animal liberation theorists (both referred to hereafter as “animal welfarists”1) has narrowed considerably with the publication of several papers highlight