By: Straw Melton
I suppose it is natural that my motivations come under scrutiny. What surprised me was how complex my motivations were.
There is money (hopefully) but we’ll get to that later.
What impassions me most is the idea that I might be doing something good. I guess I am a First World brat, believing that even being on welfare in Canada is probably a better standard of living than working your buns off in three quarters of the countries in the world.
So I’m picky. I don’t want to work for a tobacco company or club Heart seals for a living – regardless of the wage. Just as much as the idea that I am doing something good excites me, the idea that I might be doing harm distresses me.
People often ask me why I chose Bengals. The answer is, I did not. I chose cats. Bengals just “stood out among cats”, so to speak.
In 2006 humanity, demographically speaking, became more urban than rural, for the first time in known history, link: and I am not going to waste space here arguing why cats are more practical pets in the city. Suffice it to say that I have had some experience. So I decided on cats, Bengals to be specific.
I lot of people say to me, “I want to breed my…” and my ears turn off. I start bobbing my head and tick off the rules in my head as they are broken. You can’t just “breed”.
Breeding is not putting a male and a female together and pretending you don’t know what they are doing together. There are rules. Just breeding two pedigreed cats does not make the kittens pedigreed. You have to ask (with money) the breeders of both cats you want to breed for the breeding rights. That is why “breeders” are much more expensive than “pets” and pedigreed cats are more expensive than “purebred” ones. You must also conform with local by-laws (generally very lax with cats). The SPCA has their own rule book.
And now you want to know if I “show” my cats? Whoooah Nelly. I breed cats, Bengals, in order to educate myself of the rules and mechanisms of breeding. Cats seemed to be the logical choice as hardy, domestic, pets that fill an expanding market niche. I conform to the TICA Bengal breed standard’s definition of “improving the breed” as best I can, as well as the “Voluntary Code of Ethics” which isn’t voluntary at all.
The merging of shamanism – capitalism – the free market – and global warming (ie. mass extinction):
This is the basic idea as I understand it: Some environmentalists have gone political.
And had some amazing successes. From using battery-farming-style breeding methods to repopulate local biospheres; to turning the farming of seahorses into a cottage industry.
The idea is simple, even if the implementation would seem daunting to even the most ambitious. Rare things have intrinsic value.
This is the economic force that motivates poachers. Money. Profit. Despite being “illegal” endangered animals are valuable as status symbols, medicine, etc.
Until recently, that value constantly undermined the efforts of conservationists. Putting a price on the heads of the animals that we are entrusted to care for.
However, CITES hopes through regulation to even the playing field, and hit poachers where it really hearts, in the pocket book. link: Wild-life reserves could offer certified environmentally sustainable tiger steak (at maybe $2000 each) for example. Poaching would still be illegal of course.
If you can’t stomach the thought of selling (more-or-less eating) tiger steak for a good cause, how about the pelt? They surely don’t need that after they die… of natural causes of course.
Conservation efforts might actually be being hindered by prohibition, in a free market scenario, conservationists would enjoy many competitive advantages. They would have control of much of the supply. They could offer something the competition couldn’t, legitimacy. Not buying from the black market would be legal, guilt free, and a certified tiger pelt or elephant foot would be worth more too.
To treat all things living as commodities. Precious resources. The rarer, the more valuable. The exact value, fluctuating according to the market. Trade in these living things would be regulated in pretty much the same way it is today, and in the future, groups like TRAFFIC.org would like to see the free movement of exotic species along with livestock, as long as they have their paperwork.
Indeed the exotics and livestock are inseparable. Recently, the contamination of US wheat with GM wheat was discovered. Now, in order to rebuild the gene pool, the search is on for isolated biospheres that have not been effected. The same with cows, goats and other livestock, when sickness strikes, so called “heritage” livestock are used to revitalize breeds.
In the end what we always see, is that when you try to forbid anything there is demand for, your just create a black market. Perhaps for some things, legalization and regulation are impossible like, hard drugs, or “snuff”, but using the homes of the First World as oases for endangered species has a Utopian appeal. Especially if the books balance. To me, this “Hobbit-style” life-style is idyllic, but seems based in sound logic.
The popularity of seahorse-orientated industry in southeastern Australia and throughout the Pacific is an example of turning a loosing battle into a major source of revenue, and an conservationists’ offensive. The Chinese have been buying tons and tons of seahorses from fisherman, to the point where stocks have been depleted. First in the Philippines, conservationists convinced the local fishermen that they would make WAY more money if they farmed the seahorses. From there, some company in Australia started making cheap home-kits for raising seahorses and shops, dentists, and “green” homes started buying the things like crazy. A whole little cottage industry sprung up around just a single species, seahorses.
There is always someone, somewhere that is needing to deepen their gene pool. The future is even darker. Global warming no longer as a question mark even associated with it, and our minds are turning to, “How will global warming effect us?” It will be better for some than for others clearly but extinction on a horrifying scale seems inevitable.
Now, after you have read all that I am willing to talk. About money. Are you joking? Profit is not even within sight OK?
