Excursus: Norbert Hoerster, Nonhuman Animal Interests and the Right to Life

In his 2004 book Haben Tiere eine Würde? (Do Animals Have Dignity?), Norbert Hoerster presents his views on animal ethics, which will be briefly discussed in this excursus, as in the course of this some counter-arguments against a nonhuman animal right to life can be addressed. In Haben Tiere eine Würde? Hoerster (2004, 73) negates that nonhuman animals should have a right to life. Hoerster (ibid., 72) argues, for example, that nonhuman animals, unlike humans, have no interest in survival that could be violated by their killing. That this view is motivated by Hoerster’s interest in meat consumption is even suggested by Hoerster’s (ibid., 71) own argumentation; against a ban on killing animals for meat consumption, he argues: “My view is that I myself and many other people like to eat meat, which speaks against a ban on this practice.” Equivalently, a paedophile could argue for a right to have sex with children, since he and many other people enjoy having sex with children.