Because of the coronavirus pandemy it’s hard to think about anything else now. But let’s take a break from the coronavirus topics and here is one slightly different.

Society really REALLY cares about animals today. But why?

It’s because we’re rich. Imagine you live in a poor totalitarian country with a cruel dictator. Well, most of your questions would be: “How do I feed my family?” or “Could I be put in jail because of the joke I made in the pub yesterday?”

But you’re rich! You have a lot of time to think about the world in general. And information you’re searching for over the internet is not that heavily censored, so you can afford to philosophize about animals… Posing ethical questions, like if it’s OK to kill animals for their meat and eat them. Or using them for fun in circuses. Or is it justifiable to test products on them?

That’s a good thing. Capitalism made our society so rich that we can do these things. And even if we also feed the whole government as a bonus.

That’s why people nowadays are so emotional about animals in general and everything about them is very controversial. People discuss with passion fur farms, veganism, pet ownership, hunting and so on.

Also we have many laws that protect our animals, or at least people think they do. And if you’re a libertarian or even an anarchocapitalist, you probably asked yourself some animal-related question at some point… Like… How would stateless society protect animals? Is the non-aggression principle applicable to them? Could the free market provide some service like the animal protection program? Are there consequences of animal cruelty?

The answer is – of course – yes. But it’s little bit more complicated, so let me explain in these three chapters:

1) Does the government really protect animals?

2) Animals and non-aggression principle

3) How could the free market protect animals

1) Does the government really protect animals?

Personally I don’t think the government actually helps animals. I could write a whole book about it.

People usually think every single animal cruelty case could be simply solved by laws. Let’s ban fur farms and they are gone forever (actually, they move to black market – oops), let’s make circuses illegal and puf, no more suffering for lions and elephants.

I don’t know how it works in other places in world, but I live in a small country in the middle of nowhere and I’ve seen many stories about animal cruelty and the government wasn’t the hero in them.

There are cases of dogs being neglected, tied to a kennel, barking all night and day, living in their own dirt. And their owner – your neighbour – totally doesn’t give a f*ck. So what now? You call the Municipal police and they tell you, you should call Country police, because it’s their responsibility. So you call State police and they tell you, it’s the responsibility of the Municipal police. And no one wants to deal with this, so they play hot potato. Eventually you give up and maybe you violate some neighbour’s NAP.

There are many cases of people who found an injured animal in the woods and took it home. Could be anything – squirrel, possum, raccoon, fox and so on. They want to help and they do. In some cases they decide to keep the animal, give it a home and love. But in many cases, it’s illegal.

So when someone finds out and calls police, the animal is taken from its owner and killed.

I think this logic is hilarious and disgusting at the same time: “Exotic animals shouldn’t be kept as pets. It’s animal cruelty. How should we help them? We simply take them from their owners and kill them. Animals are probably happier dead than being owned.”

So that’s how governments all around the world help animals in a nutshell.

2) Animals and non-aggression principle

Some libertarians think the NAP should be applied to animals and some think otherwise.

I’ve always loved animals and they are very important to me. But I don’t think the NAP could be applied to them. Some libertarians and anarchocapitalists disagree with me and mostly because it sounds horrible.

When you say that, it almost sound like you’re saying: “Animal cruelty is totally OK. Go ahead, grab your rocket launcher and go hunt in your private-owned forest. Buy some puppies and set them fire. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.”

Umm… I don’t really think we can make this conclusion. It’s not that simple.

But let me explain first why NAP cannot be applied to animals. Of course, we can’t put a cat in jail for murdering a mouse, that’s obvious. Also if you let your dog kill someone, you’re the murderer, not the dog.

We actually violate animal’s NAP on an everyday basis. From killing an annoying fly, eating chicken, pigs and cows, taking our dogs to the vet to be neutered and vaccinated. We can’t do any of these things to the people – that would be horrible, indeed.

Also animals don’t respect our NAP. A lion would kill you in a heartbeat. That’s why we can’t apply the NAP principle to the animals.

3) How could the free market protect animals

Now, imagine we live in a stateless society – some sort of “Ancapistan” or something.

We don’t have any government, so we can’t enforce any animal protection laws and also as I explained, the NAP principle can’t be applied to animals. So how could we protect animals from being abused?

Well, there could be a company that would work exactly as police. And they would provide you protection from the violence, theft and so on. Simply all these security things.

So you contact this security agency and tell them: “Look, guys, I want your services.”

“Okay, sir, here is the contract. Simply, you will pay us and we will protect you.”

And the contract could contain many rules for the company. They are obliged to protect you, investigate any crime that happens to you, help you in crisis and much more.

But then you notice the contract also contains rules for YOU. It says: “You will NOT murder, steal, rape and do any atrocities. If you do and it’s proved you actually did that, we won’t protect you. It’s the opposite – you’ll get punished.”

And some of the rules for you could also be about animals.

“If you want our services, you won’t do any animal cruelty. You will feed your dog and take care of it properly. If we find out that you neglect it, leave it hungry and dirty, tied to a kennel for weeks, you’re going to a have bad time!”

And puf – you have animal protection laws without violating NAP, totally voluntarily accepted. There could be also a common standard if the vast majority of society would demand such laws. And competition would do the trick.

Here could also be a punishment for animal cruelty even without singing any contract. The society could simply reject you. If you set fire to some animal just for fun and people find out, they won’t serve you in a restaurant. No one will do business with you. You’re totally ostracized.

So this is how animal protection could be handled in a free market society. Anyway the reality could be far far better because millions of companies that compete could bring up some far better ideas than me in this blogpost. That’s the magic of the free market.

That’s all for today. Let me know if you want me to write down a detailed explanation how the stateless society could handle the coronavirus pandemy. It seems to be really favorite topic among people now.