The Value of Death for Animals

Abstract

This chapter reviews issues concerning the value of death for non-human animals, specifically those in shelters. It focuses on the value and harm of death, asking what makes an animal’s life worth living; what, if anything, makes death bad (or good) for animals; what factors contribute to how bad it is; and what facts about shelters are relevant to our decision-making when considering saving lives and euthanasia. The chapter reviews three views of the harm of death: death as a deprivation, death as thwarting desires, and death as interrupting a narrative. It argues for the superiority of the deprivation view, on the grounds that it best accounts for the judgment that death is bad for animals while making sense of whether and when it is better for some animals in shelters to be killed than allowed to suffer.