Animal Abuse Resulting from Wildlife Habitat Destruction

Animal abuse occurs in different forms and takes place in diverse locations. It is ubiquitous although there are important qualitative differences in regard to the nature, dynamics and seriousness of the harm as these pertain to particular nonhuman animal species. The focus of this chapter is on the destruction of wildlife habitat and how this impinges upon the health and wellbeing of nonhuman animals. Without a home in which to live or to which to migrate to, suffering and death is inevitable for nonhuman animals. Destroying species homelands, therefore, is a profoundly harmful activity that intrinsically constitutes a form of animal abuse.

For the purposes of illustration, the chapter initially focuses on de-forestation and its impacts on nonhuman animals, before briefly considering pollution-related harms. Later, the chapter turns to matters of habitat change due to competing nonhuman species, and the choices foisted upon humans regarding suitable intervention strategies. In the first two instances, wildlife habitat is literally destroyed, to be replaced by new forms of vegetation and/ or mining operations. In the latter, wildlife habitat is transformed or denuded, not by human action per se, but by the migration and (re)settlement of non-endemic species in new territories and/or population explosion of particular species relative to others. The chapter thus considers the nature, prevalence, explanations and responses to habitat loss from the point of view of harms to nonhuman animals, and does so by highlighting the specific role of human agency in regards to these issues.