Before considering cub petting or volunteering in a facility that allows close interactions with cubs, pause, research and think about the consequences… A vast number of animal lovers choose to ‘volunteer’ at cat parks and sanctuaries that are nothing else than big cats breeding & cub petting facilities posing as conservation enterprises. This includes lions, tigers, cheetahs, leopards, and […]
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Tag: Animal cruelty
Spotting Conservation Volunteering Fakes
I’ve heard that a lot of companies are just a front and aren’t really about volunteering. Is that true? Yes, that is true and even more so when volunteering is about supposedly preserving species that happen to be majestic, beautiful and/or have cute babies… So you need to watch out. Here are a few tips to help you distinguish […]
Eating Less Meat? It Matters & It’s Easy
If every person stopped eating meat and dairy for just one day a week, it would be the equivalent of removing 7.6 million cars from the road, or not driving 91 billion miles. That is incredible. Seems simple, right? Well the good news is that it truly is (simple)! And here I highlight why it matters […]
The Rescues of Jogja
The weeks I stayed there watching the consequences that we as humans can have in an animal’s life made me think a lot about how selfish we can be, and how much more we have to learn and understand about how harmful our behavior can be. After an unforgettable experience wandering in the Sumatran jungle tracking and […]
My Profits from Trading Elephant Ivory
With 96 elephants killed by poachers every day for ivory and parts, the world needs to support Africa in curbing and eradicating the demand. It’s a slow process but a campaign of more stringent penalties for poachers and enforcing those penalties should help stop the supply. Can an international ban on ivory trade help? Or […]
My Journey to Becoming an Ethical Wildli...
I am so happy to have gained a better understanding of what it takes to be an ethical wildlife volunteer. This has been and still is an ongoing journey into realizing that our actions are not always ethical –not because we don’t want to be but rather because we don’t know– and that organizations may not […]
When Ignorance Isn’t Bliss
Recently, when interviewing a young EwAnaut friend about her volunteer experience, I was reminded of how harmful not-knowing can be. Our friend had just returned from volunteering in an accredited African wildlife conservation rescue organization. This was a good ethical experience and this made a difference on so many accounts compared to the too numerous […]
Harambe and the Value of Zoo Collections...
Like many people, I have a mix feeling of incredulity and incredible sadness for what happened few days ago at the Cincinnati zoo and which led to executing Harambe the gorilla after an unattended 4-years child fell in the gorilla enclosure. At the root of all that is our relationship with wildlife. And we have […]
Volunteering with or for Big Wild Cats?
Often volunteers look for and ask us about missions where they can interact with wild cats. And more than often we hear that the motivation for joining projects allowing these types of interactions is a way for them of affirming their love for these cats. But by getting so close to them, are we really helping those animals we love so dearly? […]
Kindness for a Lost Soul…
Hard rule to follow: Always keep a safe distance between yourself and a wild animal. Always be on your guard. Respect their needed space. Don’t move fast. And please be quiet – the human species is so loud and does not grasp how disturbing and detrimental it is for an animal ([2], [3], [4]). All rules apply as […]