ETHICS OF THE HUMAN-ANIMAL RELATIONSHIP IN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The ethics of the human-animal relationship, called animal ethics, is complex and depends on many factors (habits, education, and religion). Both components of animal ethics, the human-animal relationship and the way animals are treated by humans, were affected in this pandemic. Coronaviruses are common in many species of animals and can be transmitted from animals to humans as in COVID-19. After highlighting the initial cause of the disease as the virus transmission from animals to humans, many people suddenly gave up their pets abandoning them. Lockdown and loneliness have led to increased adoption of pets, but the occurrence of several cases of COVID-19 in them has quickly led to increased abandonment.
Another human action in this pandemic was the mass killing of animals suspected of transmitting the virus to humans, just like other diseases, the victims now being animals raised for fur. The race for COVID-19 treatments/vaccines has led to the creation of many experimental models from rodents to non-human primates. These studies have led to an increase in the acceptance by the population of the use of animals for scientific purposes but also to a degradation of the moral status of animals that have become laboratory instruments in reporting.
The analysis of animal ethics in the COVID-19 pandemic shows that the anthropocentric theory of the human-animal relationship dominates, and the relational theory of self-saving and those close to us is more current than ever. However, our relationship with animals must reconcile life veneration with the inevitability of killing them.