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The powerpoint slides included on this page are a subset from the Whales Rescue Dilemma by Dr Dominique Blache, Agriculture & Natural Sciences, University of Western Australia, and Stan Koios, Department of Education & Training, Perth, Western Australia shown in full at http://www.dilemmas.net.au/course/view.php?id=11
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Associate Professor Dominique Blache, from the School of Animal Biology and Institute of Agriculture at the University of Western Australia, gives us the inside information on his animal ethics course. Students come to class with the idea that Dr Blache will tell them what to do but ethics is not about telling people what to do. It is more about how to look at a situation before people make their own decision. That misunderstanding makes it uncomfortable for people to talk about ethics in general and animal ethics in particular. Many think their conclusions will be judged, which is not what the ethics class is about. Ethics is never black and white.
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| Some arguments might not work in all situations and some situations need to be looked at from other angles. These arguments are the basis of ethics, strong arguments supporting an ethical position. That is why all the arguments need to be listened to.
His classes contain a whole spectrum of people with a range of views, from animal liberation and animal welfare to sons and daughters of farmers and a lot of consumers of animal products. It is this diversity that generates discussion around issues.
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| Dr Blache’s tutorials divide the class members into pairs of groups of three who have to argue two sides of an issue, such as do animals feel pain. Their own position is irrelevant so it is a very nice brain game for students to come up with arguments. This kind of critical thinking is much like what happens in science when it looks at a problem. Dr Blache tells students that in exams those students that come up with arguments that he has thought of will get a good mark but those that come up with something he has never thought of will get a high distinction. This is because it made him think as well.
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| At the end of a unit one student wrote, “Thanks for the unit. At first I thought I was going to be taught vegetarianism by some form of greenie and then I realised I couldn’t figure out what your position was and I really enjoyed the fact that the outcome was not the aim of the unit but discussion was.” Other students, when asked early on what he could do to make the unit better included two students who said they didn’t like the unit at all. That was because now they couldn’t watch current affairs on TV and not be critical, so the task of relaxing in front of the TV was changed.
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| Dr Blache has created hypothetical situations for years 10-11 students to think about animal ethics.
One such issue shines a spotlight on what animal ethics really is about. It was inspired by reports around that period concerning the beaching of many whales on the Tasmanian coast.
What steps need to be taken in this situation and what are the consequences of each one?
Some would argue that the whales should be returned to the sea but what are the consequences for the whales’ gene pool if whales with faulty navigation are returned?
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| That may not help the whale population.
There might be some neurological or physiological problems that cause them to beach themselves because some beached whales do it again, even after rescue.
Other people say those animals are endangered so we need to do something to help them to survive.
Many arguments are controversial.
Some may argue that such animals could be harvested, others that they could be used for research. Still others mention the cost of returning them to the sea and the fact that it is not efficient, especially when some whales are just too big to be moved.
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| It is quite hard to kill a 40 ton whale humanely while ending their suffering (Indwws this is one of the claims against commercial whaling operations).The most rapid and dependable method is distressingly graphic and so is hard for many people to deal with. It is almost impossible to inject them with a barbiturate or to bleed them and a rifle can’t quickly kill such a large creature. To put an animal out of its misery requires something that works the first time. In this case it needs to be a charge of explosives that instantly blows its head apart! Now that’s a real ethical dilemma.
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| Associate Professor Blache was interviewed for A Question of Balance by Ruby Vincent. All images from Dr Blache or the Whales Rescue Dilemma Powerpoint ethical scenarios at http://www.dilemmas.net.au/course/view.php?id=11. Summary text by Victor Barry, September 2016.
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