EATING THAT IS NOT SELF-DEFEATING - Angela Fernandez review of Josh Milburn’s Just Fodder: The Ethics of Feeding Animals

Aug 23, 2026

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Angela Fernandez reviews Josh Milburn’s Just Fodder: The Ethics of Feeding Animals, focusing on whether feeding or refusing to feed nonhuman animals raises “trivial” or justice-relevant questions. The review weighs arguments about wildlife dependence on people, loss of natural fear, overpopulation and related disease risks, and spillover effects for other animals. It also links debates on feeding exceptions to broader controversies such as backyard hens, including public health and veterinary capacity concerns in urban settings.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Review overview

Ethics of feeding nonhuman animals

Urban wildlife and policy examples

Backyard hens controversy and public health

EATING THAT IS NOT SELF-DEFEATING Angela Fernandez reviewing Josh Milburn Just Fodder: The Ethics of Feeding Animals (McGill-Queen’s University Press 2022) M ILBURN ’S JUST FODDER IS ABOUT the ethics of feeding or not feeding nonhuman animals . The word “just” in the title refers both to the perception that this is a trivial area of inquiry from a philosophical perspective, and the response that these questions are not insignificant , engaging as they do questions of justice (pp. 4-5) . Milburn is correct to appreciate that the topic can be viewed in both ways, as the following story illustrates . I was interviewed last year by a law student who was writing a humorous piece for the “diversions” section of the school newspaper about how he was told he was not allowed to feed geese on the law school’s lawn . I had actually been following the city of Toronto’s nine-month-long Animal Bylaw review process, which was asking whether there should be a prohibition on feeding wildlife in the city, with a proposed exemption for songbirds fed using bird feeders . I sent the student information about this, referring him specifically to a list of issues the city had posted which tilted Angela Fernandez is a professor of law at the University of Toronto and a director of Animal Justice Canada. Copyright 2023 Angela Fernandez. 26 GREEN BAG 2D 161 Angela Fernandez towards discouraging such feeding, namely, concerns about animals becoming dependent on people who feed them , losing their natural fear of humans, and reproducing at rates resulting in overpopulation (which would increase the likelihood of diseases and parasites and to the animals themselves becoming a “nuisance”– never good for any kind of wild animal), and about feeding attracting other undesired animals . The student wrote in his article that he “discussed this issue with Angela Fernandez who is well known at our school for her work on animal-related issues . Unfortunately, she was on the administration’s side and cited concerns” like the ones I had sent him. About the songbird exemption, he continued,[g]eese are obviously birds so all I need to do is teach them to sing …. Now, that is putting my legal education to good use . Sure , I need to figure out which notes a goose can hit, but those are minor details . I bet they would also look great in little choir uniforms . 1 I am happy for animal law at the University of Toronto2 to be promoted in any ways, including light-hearted ones . Yet the experience reminded me of the point I developed in my book on Pierson v. Post that “solemn foolery”is so often used, especially in the law, in connection with nonhuman animals . An issue of this sort can easily swing both ways, from serious to silly and back again, like the more widely known backyard hen issue, which Milburn discusses in his book.3 Milburn notes that the backyard chicken issue is contentious (p. 39) . Last year the city of Winnipeg voted to abandon its pilot program for backyard hens, and the city of Toronto is currently in the process of reviewing its urban hens program .4 There are a lot of issues relating to back- 1 Kyle MacDonald, Justice for Geese, ULTRA VIRES (Mar. 1, 2023), [https://ultravires.ca/](https://ultravires.ca/)[ ](https://ultravires.ca/)[2022/03/justice-for-geese/.](2022/03/justice-for-geese/.) 2 [https://www.law.utoronto.ca/focus-area/animal-law](https://www.law.utoronto.ca/focus-area/animal-law) . 3 See ANGELA FERNANDEZ , PIERSON V . POST , THE HUNT FOR THE FOX: LAW AND PROFESSIONALIZATION IN AMERICAN LEGAL CULTURE ch. 2 (Cambridge University Press 2018)(giving examples of modern solemn foolery and historical examples of works of literature with legal themes expressly dealing with hunting themes) . 4 See City of Toronto Seeks Public Feedback on Backyard Hens Pilot Program (Jan . 30, 2023), City of Winnipeg Votes to Abandon Backyard Hen Program But Upholds Pitbull Ban (Apr . 28, 2022), and City of Toronto Reviewing Pilot P

FAQs

What central ethical question does Milburn’s book address according to the review?

It addresses the ethics of feeding or not feeding nonhuman animals, treating the topic as connected to questions of justice rather than trivial inquiry.

What concerns does the review describe regarding allowing people to feed wildlife?

It highlights risks such as animals becoming dependent on people, losing fear of humans, reproducing at problematic rates, attracting other undesired animals, and creating disease or parasite risks.

How does the review connect the feeding debate to the backyard hens controversy?

It notes that backyard hens programs are contentious and discusses related issues such as Avian Bird Flu concerns, limits on veterinary treatment for farm animals, and welfare or public-health problems like abandonment.

Aug 23, 2026

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