Conservation and wildlife organisations lack veg*ns

[mabli]

I received this email from a local vegan the other day, raises a few good points that I thought I’d share... Ive heard from others that there are very few vegans or even veggies in conservation/wildlife organisations... anybody know why there this seems to be the case???

If there were more vegs in the wildlife movement, we could have a greater influence on a range of issues – and, I believe, it would be far, far more useful than promoting ‘animal rights’. At present, there are more hunting, shooting and fishing people than vegs within wildlife organizations, and we get a very unbalanced representation on farming issues, and management of gamebirds, water-courses, etc. As far as I know, I’m the only veg. on the NE Wales Conservation Committee, and it would be very useful to have a few more vegs to back me up. For example, there are discussions going on about buying an area near Wrexham, for development as a nature reserve, but working with an angling group (from E.Cheshire) to give them fishing rights. On some of the Trust reserves there is a policy of trapping wild mink, because these animals are widely blamed for the extinction of water voles throughout Britain. In fact, 98 percent of water voles were wiped out before mink arrived in this country, and the major factor is sheep farming, but mink are a convenient scapegoat. Pheasant do a huge amount of environmental damage, but the shooting lobby imports several million of these birds every year, and there are few complaints, because the shooting people have so much control over the way the countryside is managed. We need more veg. wildlife conservationists to promote the facts and dispel the myths.

[Konstantin]

In the mid 1990s a friend of mine worked for a wildlife oriented conservation group. Previously he'd worked in St George's medical school, filming the vivisection so he could release it to the media. In the George's there were a number of vegetarians, but in the conservation group there were none. He kept saying you were more likely to meet a vegetarian in an animal lab than in a conservation charity!

Part of the problem is that because matters like shooting are such an issue from an animal rights or welfare perspective, all other perspectives seem to get discounted. Lots of people with ethical viewpoints of an environmental type dismiss the meat and daity industry because they're 'animal issue'.

It's also worth remembering that the word 'conservation' means to keep the same. So you can conserve woodland, but you could conserve the slash and burn practices destroying the rainforests. A lot of people involved in conservation have the motivation of keeping them the same - available for hunting and useable by those who enjoy doing what they want regardless of the ecological impact.

[Johnstuff]

Dunno, just some of my thoughts.

I'm quite skeptical of the more mainstream non-abolishionist groups like the WWF & RSPCA etc. I do support the local Wildlife Trust (I asked if they do anything controversial before I signed up) as they just set aside land for conservation/wildlife.

I tend to feel if I have spare money to donate, it's better in the hands of a vegan/abolishionist group like VIVA rather than a more mainsteam wildlife/conservation group that may well support hunting etc.

I would suggest that maybe a vegan outreach group will do more to help the environment in the long term than a conservation group that promotes fishing for example as by promoting veganism they are doing a lot for the environment.

Maybe a lot of us are alienated by the fact that most of these more mainstream groups don't seem to have going vegan as a high prority when we know it is the single most improtant thing anyone can do for animals and the environment?

[mabli]

I understand what you're both saying, but if more vegans or even veggies got involved it could help shape these movements in a more animal friendly way.

[VexedCoffee]

In missouri, conservation is often a code word for hunting and fishing. I don't think a vegan would fit in very well with one of these groups, it may seem like they have similar goals in mind but in truth their philosophies are vastly different.

With that said, I have considered working(as a scientist or regulator) with gov't conservation agencies. I wouldn't mind fining hunters and fishers for a career.