Wildlife Direction

[nightshade]

I am always suprised when people get upset by a small group of people chasing a single
Fox (ok poor thing) when very little sympathy is aroused by 50 protected Daubentons Bats being murdered (they are after all mammals) or the fact that 2.5 tons of eels are fished from a water and the following year less than 20 kilos are caught from the same water,there are
double standards at work,if it is cuddly and can be anthropomorphised everyone is keen to protect it if it is a fish which is the main food source of many more (Otters ,heron )animals
it is ignored. bats keep many thousands of insects down but are ignored by the ooh-ing and aah-ing wildlifers
Lets try to be more even handed in our support

[Wild-Woman]

Originally Posted by nightshade

I am always suprised when people get upset by a small group of people chasing a single
Fox (ok poor thing) when very little sympathy is aroused by 50 protected Daubentons Bats being murdered (they are after all mammals) or the fact that 2.5 tons of eels are fished from a water and the following year less than 20 kilos are caught from the same water,there are
double standards at work,if it is cuddly and can be anthropomorphised everyone is keen to protect it if it is a fish which is the main food source of many more (Otters ,heron )animals
it is ignored. bats keep many thousands of insects down but are ignored by the ooh-ing and aah-ing wildlifers
Lets try to be more even handed in our support

I think it's not so much ignorance but lack of awareness that creates conditions where any one group of animals suffer at human hands. Fox hunting has a high profile in any media group whereas eels and bats(who as you say aren't considered cuddly) get virtually no media coverage.
This is why it is important that sites like this highlight their situation.
I sometimes wish that,from a very early age, children are taught to respect and love all things wild, from the lowly worm or slug to the nightime creatures like bats and indeed the insects that are considered dirty or scary by parents.
My own parents were not taught the importance of animals in ecology, therefore it was ok to exploit them. Now I'm sort of teaching them where every creature 'fits' in and why they are important and even they will put a fly out if possible rather than splatting it.
I think things will change, albeit slowly, in favour of some of our less cuddly critters. We've just got to start from the young up and the old down. The cure may come when we meet in the middle.
Julie

[badgerwatcher]

Here-here, WW.
I also feel that our society focuses so much on who or what is the most beautiful, i.e. has the most perfect physical features.
As someone who has never been in that competition, I feel that we need to start focusing on other aspects than beauty in conventional terms, and start focusing more on caring and respect.

[matt_xyz]

I agree that there is often an imbalance amongst the general public when it comes to conservation. But there is a difference between the examples you cite and Fox hunting. Fox hunting arouses such passion not because of conservation but because of one word; cruelty. It is not necessarily the fact that foxes are killed, but the manner in which it occurs (ditto deer hunting with dogs).

The other factor of course, which relates to the cuteness factor, is that in evolutionary terms foxes are a mere whisker away from the pet dogs that many people love. The idea of your pet dog being chased and torn apart does tend to arouse strong feelings.

All that said, I certainly agree that the media should devote more attention to the other serious wildlife problems that occur around the UK.

Matt

[honeybee]

I will say that when it comes to hunting etc, a lot of people who feel strongly against it probably eat battery hen eggs and meat from intensively reared animals without thinking about it. It's the fact that hunting is/was a sport enjoyed by a minority and the goal was to kill an animal for no real reason that upset people and it became very high profile due to the change of law/media etc. I think that the proletariat / general public get upset about anything if it's well publiscised / campaigned.

[badgerwatcher]

When I was about three or four in the early 1950's, I remember being in Marks and Spencers with my mother, and recoiling in horror at a lady who bent to speak to me wearing a dead Fox around her neck, with little beads sewn in for eyes! I remember causing quite a scene, and asking why she was doing it, and if she had killed it.
We have moved on a bit from then and are still doing so. The process is very gradual though.
Some fifty years prior to that, sextuplets were born, can't remember where. They were taken from their parents, and a special zoo was built for them, where they lived, and people could go and see them.
And people used to wear dead birds on their hats!
It's all gradual.
We just have to make a fuss, and keep making a fuss.

[honeybee]

Originally Posted by badgerwatcher

When I was about three or four in the early 1950's, I remember being in Marks and Spencers with my mother, and recoiling in horror at a lady who bent to speak to me wearing a dead Fox around her neck, with little beads sewn in for eyes! I remember causing quite a scene, and asking why she was doing it, and if she had killed it.
We have moved on a bit from then and are still doing so. The process is very gradual though.
Some fifty years prior to that, sextuplets were born, can't remember where. They were taken from their parents, and a special zoo was built for them, where they lived, and people could go and see them.
And people used to wear dead birds on their hats!
It's all gradual.
We just have to make a fuss, and keep making a fuss.

on the subject of fur, it's sadly very fashionable again.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by honeybee

on the subject of fur, it's sadly very fashionable again.

I encountered a woman in MK last year boasting to her equally bimble brained freind that her hat was pure Snow Leopard ! - I suspect that she had been ripped off and it was actually nothing of the sort but that is beside the point.

I was absolutely furious at the conversation to the point where i let go a volley of four letter abuse and stormed out - only just restraining myself from dousing the offending article with my coffee

I fully support the Lynx line - "Fur coats are worn by beuatiful animals , and ugly people."

[honeybee]

Originally Posted by eeyore

I encountered a woman in MK last year boasting to her equally bimble brained freind that her hat was pure Snow Leopard ! - I suspect that she had been ripped off and it was actually nothing of the sort but that is beside the point.

I was absolutely furious at the conversation to the point where i let go a volley of four letter abuse and stormed out - only just restraining myself from dousing the offending article with my coffee

I fully support the Lynx line - "Fur coats are worn by beuatiful animals , and ugly people."

Think I would have smashed her face in. Not that i'm violent ofcourse!

[anusha]

Originally Posted by nightshade

I am always suprised when people get upset by a small group of people chasing a single
Fox (ok poor thing) when very little sympathy is aroused by 50 protected Daubentons Bats being murdered (they are after all mammals) or the fact that 2.5 tons of eels are fished from a water and the following year less than 20 kilos are caught from the same water,there are
double standards at work,if it is cuddly and can be anthropomorphised everyone is keen to protect it if it is a fish which is the main food source of many more (Otters ,heron )animals
it is ignored. bats keep many thousands of insects down but are ignored by the ooh-ing and aah-ing wildlifers
Lets try to be more even handed in our support

I'm not so sure its anything to do with double standards, if people are aware then they can make a stand...but for most the high profile campaigns are all they know about in any depth... there are many animals that need our protection but its human nature to gravitate towards those that hit us in the face.... and thats down to media coverage.

I think matt_xyz summed it up perfectly for me. we can relate to the plight of the hunted Fox more easily than other species..partly because of the media coverage and cuteness factor but also because its on our doorstep...wherever you live you arent far from a hunt.

I think the general public are becomming more aware, more and more people are making a stand by trying to buy goods with a concience...even in the supermarket its great to see people studying the eggs they buy, and the space given to eggs from battery hens is becoming smaller as more people are prepared to vote with their wallets.

Its a small step but in the right direction