Vegans Love Carnivores

Today, July 11, is World Population Day : a day to think about the human population and how we  can best ensure that our population is sustainable for the health and well-being of both humans and of the planet. This day was started in 1987 by the United Nations as a way for awareness to be raised on the potential problems with an increasing population, as well as the impact that the current population has on the world. Since 1987, our population has grown by 2 billion. Let's put that into perspective: From http://library.fes.de/fulltext/bueros/simbabwe/01061002.htm We have seen unprecedented growth of human populations since the industrial revolution.  The keen-eyed of you may notice that the UN projections show that population growth may tail off in the future .  "Great", you say, "we don't have to worry about population growth from now on!".  I wish this were true. Right now, we consume more resources than the earth is able to replenish: ...

Article on my livestock guarding dog research on  Mongabay Dogs protect livestock from predators, predators from humans The last couple centuries have seen the decline of many large predator species. While there has been a surge of recovery and reintroduction programs to combat this problem, human population growth and limited protected areas have led to increased rates of human-wildlife conflicts in many regions of the world. A study published recently in the Wildlife Society Bulletin tested the ability of trained guarding dogs to protect livestock in South Africa and found it to be highly effective, protecting humans and predators alike. In South Africa, predators such as large cats often live in close proximity to farmlands and often times will prey on livestock. Predation of livestock can take a toll on farmers’ income, often costing more than $3,000 in annual losses. This, in turn, can lead farmers to hunt and kill cats as a means of protecting their livelihoods. Leopards ...

The last few decades of conservation policy has focused on the links between biodiversity degradation and poverty .  Whilst commendable in terms of human welfare, I think this direction is misleading: it has the mistaken premise that once people are not "poor" any more (what is "poor"?) they will no longer damage the environment.  This couldn't be further from the truth. The "poor" Himba tribes of Namibia hunt wildlife but have a very low overall impact on the environment Case in point: emerging markets, such as in China, are expected to have unprecedented demand for meat products as the poorer classes become more wealthy and demand these "luxury" items.  And we all know what an increase in meat production does to the environment . Next point:  Carbon emissions.   Middle- to higher-income countries have far greater carbon emissions than those in low-income countries .  I don't even need to expand here about what increased carbon e...

This is a repost from my article that was just published in the Guardian  newspaper: The conflict between farmers and predators has wiped out the UK's large carnivores. More must be done to improve coexistence When you take a bite from your beef burger, have you ever stopped to think about the other animals besides the cow that were killed in the making of your dinner?  It is a little known fact that the meat industry tends to be at odds with wildlife conservation .  But how can this be? The UK used to be home to vast plethora of wonderful beasts; the grey wolf, the brown bear, and the Eurasian lynx, to name but a few.  However, farmers thought that these carnivores killed livestock and so were wiped out many centuries ago .  Now, our largest land predators (besides humans, of course) are badgers and foxes – and yet the meat industry is still waging war against these two species . In other areas of Europe, carnivores are met with a similar fate...

"Failure is not an option".  That phrase has turned into a dogma amongst conservation scientists and practitioners.   Thou shalt not fail .  Because if you fail, you're seen as a failure, and as such, your funding will be cut, your job will be on the line, you'll lose all your friends, your partner will leave you, and your life  will suck forever.  Or that's at least how it appears failure is seen in this industry. But how do we ever learn how to do things?  We try, we fail, we try again, we fail again, we learn, we see how other people do it, they fail, we try again, and maybe we succeed, and we show other people how to do it.  But more importantly, we show other people how not  to do it; how not to waste your time, money and valuable resources on doing what we already tried and realised didn't work. Trial and error.  What a fabulous way of learning. It would be strange for a child to automatically know  how to build a Lego house,...

The tiger: a symbol of spirituality, fear, dominance, beauty, death, wilderness, terror and awe.  Tigers have been present in human lives ever since early Hominids wandered into their territories many tens of thousands of years ago.  And since then, human-tiger conflict has occurred, where tigers ate people or their livestock and people killed tigers and their prey.  Tigers have also been regarded as commodities: medicine, fashion, furniture and trophies (adorned on the wall either stuffed or in a photo).  Thus they appear to have great value to us, especially now they are rare.  Being rare, however, could mean their ultimate demise, as the law of economics states that the fewer items available (their supply) and their high demand raises the price, which spurs on further exploitation until extinction.  But here's a question: does it even matter if the tiger goes extinct?  Indeed, the species has been extirpated (removed) from vast tracts of it...

It is now my seventh month living in Namibia for my PhD fieldwork and my fifth on the livestock farm collecting data.  How time has flown!  When I first came to visit this farm back in July I never envisioned that I would have even stayed here (I had plans to live on another farm but that didn’t quite work out…!), let alone feel so at home here.  Always having lived in cities, towns and large villages before, I wasn’t sure how well I’d cope being  a 260 km roundtrip to the nearest town, not least because of the lack of social activities, but also the logistical constraints on buying things like food when you run out! The farmhouse I've been staying in for the last 5 months Fortunately, I fitted in spectacularly well to farm life, helping out with every aspect, from the happy and fun like playing with the dogs, to the grim and ugly like assisting with the killing and butchering of cows.  What I have seen and taken part with on this farm has opened my eye...