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ABSTRACT
Urban animals can benefit from living in cities, but this also makes them vulnerable as they increasingly depend on the advantages of urban life. This article has two aims. First, I provide a detailed analysis of the concept of captivity and explain why it matters to nonhuman animals – because and insofar as many of them have a (non-substitutable) interest in freedom. Second, I defend a surprising implication of the account – pushing the boundaries of the concept while the boundaries of cities and human activities expand. I argue for the existence of the neglected problem of pervasive captivity, of which urban wildlife is an illustration. Many urban animals are confined, controlled and dependent, therefore often captive of expanding urban areas. While I argue that captivity per se is value-neutral, I draw the ethical and policy implications of harmful pervasive captivity.
Acknowledgments
Ideas in this paper originated from three years of teaching “Keeping Animals” at New York University. I’m indebted in more ways than I can remember to conversations with my students and guest speakers (including Hillary Angelo and Lori Gruen). Anna Frostic and Jonathan Lovvorn from the Humane Society of the US provided helpful tips on the scarcity of legal protections covering urban wildlife. Previous drafts received valuable feedback from audiences at the University of Chicago (Animal/Nonhuman Workshop, Urban Workshop, and Law and Philosophy Workshop), at the 2018 Pacific Meeting of the APA in San Diego, CA, and at New College of Florida, as well as from Mark Berger, Karen Bradshaw, Bob Fischer, William Hubbard, Dale Jamieson, Colin Jerolmack, Jeff Johnson, Ben Laurence, Duncan Purves, Emma Saunders-Hastings, and Jim Wilson. I am particularly indebted to Zoe Hughes, Clair Morrissey, and Martha Nussbaum for detailed feedback, and to two anonymous referees for Ethics, Policy, & Environment for their helpful comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).