Conceptualizing the ethical questions in the use of livestock protection dogs

[摘要] In the functioning of the mammalian eye complex, only one point in the visual field is perceived in detail, while all other points are perceived with progressive decreasing acuity towards the periphery of the field. The mental construction of an object visually perceived will concentrate attention with clearness on only one or a very few of the attributes available for examination. A tile mosaic or a Rembrandt painting is meaningless if visually examined from only centimeters distance. Our opinions of the ethical use of animals may function in a similar way. An individual may have a clear and convincing opinion on an aspect of a complex ethical issue of animal use; the particular tile which is the individual’s primary focus of the mosaic. Around this strong personal conviction, there will be a twilight zone acknowledged but not clearly seen; by shifting the attention a little, a new tile will be brought into focus and the extent of the moral conviction may be changed although the identity of the concept is maintained. There will always be a zone about which one cannot say with certainty that a specific consideration is or is not within the concept of an ethical opinion (1).

[学科分类] 兽医学