Saturday, May 7, 2011

Chemistry Award

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

(In response to Share dialog about the EWC)

This post sounds almost verbatim of what I hear from someone I know of who was involved at WCSRC when it was founded and left due to the politics..

I will keep this as short as possible, as I could easily write a wall of text here..

I’m not quite sure how EWC can survive without re-inventing itself in a major way. I would probably start by looking back to its roots, and also looking at some other organizations which are thriving and have incredible public support.

I’ve been to several facilities and been an animal handler at others (yes.. hands on) and the EWC has always turned me off. Granted EWC focuses on “Populations” and disconnects from individuals which comprise it, but these individuals that make up the populations are individuals with personalities and lives. Disconnecting from the ones you’re caring for like this turns your facility into nothing more than a zoo, where people will come to see the animals, and then leave.

Trying to get support based on “saving the species” is going to have limited success from the general public. At the end of the day people go home and “saving the species” is quickly forgotten when the bills fall out of the mailbox. Having a personal connection to an animal is an entirely different matter. I can speak to this, having footed thousands of dollars to veterinary bills in the past for animals that I’ve helped care for. I don’t think the public would pause for very long if another endangered species disappeared off of the planet. “There goes another one... Oh, I’m late for work...”

Politics have to be dealt with, I expect that evaluating the organizational structure and taking a good hard look at how you operate will lead to a lot of insight there.

A plan to turn EWC around would be fairly simple I think, garner huge amounts of public participation, and keep the reintroduction animals completely isolated from public contact.

howls...

p.s I had coffee at your shop this morning, it is a very nice place.

p.p.s. It’s almost impossible to post a reply on your blog to where you intend for it to go.