WWF-SA – SCAREMONGERS IN CONSERVATION
By Chris Mercer – Tuesday, April 06, 2004
On 20-Nov-03, the WWF (World Wide fund for Nature) in South Africa published the following article.
Unfortunately, it is written in Ecobabble, a language designed by the High Priests of Conservation to confuse the uninitiated, and so we have provided a translation below.
"WWF-SA Position on Animal Rights" Dr. Rob Little of WWF-SA
ANIMAL RIGHTS AS A THREAT TO CONSERVATION
1. As the population of the wealthy "developed" nations move ever further from their daily interactions with Nature, they move into a realm where simplistic "animal rights" approaches/solutions to mankind's interaction with wildlife become ever more appealing to "the man in the street".
2. WWF-SA believes that the conservation community completely underestimates how devastating this trend could be, if allowed to proceed unchecked.
3. This attitude can lead to mismanaged or unmanaged systems; for example (A) the lack of control of introduced invasive alien species which can threaten the future viability and biodiversity of the invaded ecosystems, (B) the lack of control of overabundant large native herbivores in protected areas where their uncontrolled population growth similarly reduces the viability and biodiversity of the protected ecosystems, and (C) the issue of opposition to the sustainable consumptive use of native wildlife populations – where allowing this use might be of fundamental importance in ensuring that native species and untransformed ecosystems survive in areas where human needs will otherwise drive these areas into alternative land usage under which ecosystems are transformed (e.g. cultivated) and/or native wildlife is replaced with domesticated livestock.
4. By failing to recognize, and then face head-on, the enormous strategic challenge posed by the growth of the animal rights movement, the conservation community could seriously impair its ability to influence for the better the fate of the natural world in the decades to come.
5. WWF-SA is continually on guard to ensure that our own conservation policies continue to be driven by genuine conservation imperatives and not by animal rights agendas.
TRANSLATION IN TO PLAIN ENGLISH.
1. As human populations become urbanized, people become more sophisticated and therefore more concerned with the ethical treatment of animals.
2. WWF-SA believes that this process is subversive, and if unchecked, might even result in hunters having to sell their guns.
3. An ethical attitude to the treatment of sentient beings will result in chaos:
A. Invasive aliens will run wild, destroying nature. The Tahrs will graze crop circles in the fynbos, and then declare Table Mountain a Tahr Republic. The WWF alien Panda logo will have to go to an animal experimentation laboratory to be sustainably utilized. It will be replaced by a Cape Molerat with Certificates from the Alien Classification Board that its ancestors are all pure South African going back as far as carbon dating allows.
B. Elephants and Buffalo will form up into ranks and trample game parks into deserts.
C. Hunting will become unpopular, so natives will plough up the land. Wildlife will be killed by poor blacks (poaching, bad) instead of by rich whites (conservation, good).
4. Unless the High Priests of Conservation form a tight scrum to exclude the urbanized, ethically – literate invaders, we will lose the power to decide what animals to kill and when.
5. The Tuli elephant traffickers may rest assured that we will be ready to issue another Press Release rubbishing the animal rightists who, for their own wicked agendas, spread malicious rumours that the Tuli elephant babies were being beaten and tortured. WWF-SA, upon whom the Almighty has bestowed a monopoly of all knowledge relating to environmental governance, will never allow ordinary, concerned citizens to participate in wildlife management, regardless of the laws and the Constitution.
By Chris Mercer – Tuesday, April 06, 2004
On 20-Nov-03, the WWF (World Wide fund for Nature) in South Africa published the following article.
Unfortunately, it is written in Ecobabble, a language designed by the High Priests of Conservation to confuse the uninitiated, and so we have provided a translation below.
"WWF-SA Position on Animal Rights" Dr. Rob Little of WWF-SA
ANIMAL RIGHTS AS A THREAT TO CONSERVATION
1. As the population of the wealthy "developed" nations move ever further from their daily interactions with Nature, they move into a realm where simplistic "animal rights" approaches/solutions to mankind's interaction with wildlife become ever more appealing to "the man in the street".
2. WWF-SA believes that the conservation community completely underestimates how devastating this trend could be, if allowed to proceed unchecked.
3. This attitude can lead to mismanaged or unmanaged systems; for example (A) the lack of control of introduced invasive alien species which can threaten the future viability and biodiversity of the invaded ecosystems, (B) the lack of control of overabundant large native herbivores in protected areas where their uncontrolled population growth similarly reduces the viability and biodiversity of the protected ecosystems, and (C) the issue of opposition to the sustainable consumptive use of native wildlife populations – where allowing this use might be of fundamental importance in ensuring that native species and untransformed ecosystems survive in areas where human needs will otherwise drive these areas into alternative land usage under which ecosystems are transformed (e.g. cultivated) and/or native wildlife is replaced with domesticated livestock.
4. By failing to recognize, and then face head-on, the enormous strategic challenge posed by the growth of the animal rights movement, the conservation community could seriously impair its ability to influence for the better the fate of the natural world in the decades to come.
5. WWF-SA is continually on guard to ensure that our own conservation policies continue to be driven by genuine conservation imperatives and not by animal rights agendas.
TRANSLATION IN TO PLAIN ENGLISH.
1. As human populations become urbanized, people become more sophisticated and therefore more concerned with the ethical treatment of animals.
2. WWF-SA believes that this process is subversive, and if unchecked, might even result in hunters having to sell their guns.
3. An ethical attitude to the treatment of sentient beings will result in chaos:
A. Invasive aliens will run wild, destroying nature. The Tahrs will graze crop circles in the fynbos, and then declare Table Mountain a Tahr Republic. The WWF alien Panda logo will have to go to an animal experimentation laboratory to be sustainably utilized. It will be replaced by a Cape Molerat with Certificates from the Alien Classification Board that its ancestors are all pure South African going back as far as carbon dating allows.
B. Elephants and Buffalo will form up into ranks and trample game parks into deserts.
C. Hunting will become unpopular, so natives will plough up the land. Wildlife will be killed by poor blacks (poaching, bad) instead of by rich whites (conservation, good).
4. Unless the High Priests of Conservation form a tight scrum to exclude the urbanized, ethically – literate invaders, we will lose the power to decide what animals to kill and when.
5. The Tuli elephant traffickers may rest assured that we will be ready to issue another Press Release rubbishing the animal rightists who, for their own wicked agendas, spread malicious rumours that the Tuli elephant babies were being beaten and tortured. WWF-SA, upon whom the Almighty has bestowed a monopoly of all knowledge relating to environmental governance, will never allow ordinary, concerned citizens to participate in wildlife management, regardless of the laws and the Constitution.