WBI Studies Repository (WellBeing International)
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Why Do Children Prefer to Save Dogs Over People?
Get PDFA new study looked at the attitudes of children and adults in a shipwreck situation where one has to decide who to save - a certain number of humans versus a certain number of dogs. Adults typically choose to save the humans but children are much more likely to save the dogs
Cats and wildlife: an animal welfare perspective.
Get PDFWhile there is no question that outdoors cats have an impact on wildlife, the extent and significance of this impact is the subject of considerable debate. The controversy surrounding outdoor cats can be traced back at least a century, with contemporary claims of threats to global biodiversity bringing animal welfare and conservation interests directly into opposition, largely over the means of managing conflicts. The irony in this is that cat defenders and cat detractors generally agree that it is in the best interests of cats that they should be shielded from the vagaries of outdoor life. While there are practical and implementable ways to begin addressing the management concerns surrounding outdoor cats the current polarization seems to militate strongly against cooperation. This paper reviews some of the complexity surrounding the issue of outdoor cats and suggests possible approaches to overcoming these conflicts
Roads & Wildlife: Safeguarding Asia’s Rich Biodiversity
Get PDFIn some areas where roads bisect wildlife habitat, collisions or near misses with large mammals like deer are all too familiar, and countless smaller creatures like turtles and squirrels fall victim to automobiles every day. In addition to the risk of collisions, these roads also act as barriers to animals completing daily movement or seasonal migrations essential for survival. Roads and other linear infrastructure (railways, canals, power lines) have many adverse impacts on wildlife and biodiversity
Remembering Sidney Lerner
Get PDFSidney Lerner, a New York advertising executive, recently passed away at the age of 90 on January 12, 2021. We remember Sid for, amongst other projects, his contribution to and elevation of the public health issue of meat consumption through his “Meatless Mondays” campaign launched in 2003
The Wolf Pendulum in the United States
Get PDFHumans have had a very contentious history with wolves and attitudes have varied from hatred to strong protection. It is unclear why the wolf generates such strong emotions. Since the wolf was protected under the Endangered Species Act in the early 1970s, wolf protection has been on the upswing. But, in the last decade, antipathy to wolves has again begun dominant as the wolf population in the lower 48 states reached 7,000. In the last few years, attitudes to wolves have trended negative and state authorities have instituted policies to hunt wolves and reduce the wolf populations
The Human Footprint from the Last Ice Age to the Present
Get PDFHumans have had a considerable impact on the earth in the last hundred years but recent research indicates that humans may have caused substantial alteration to the biospheres starting around 5,000 years ago when the total human population was around 50 to 100 million
Animal Sentience, Public Awareness, and Public Policy
Get PDFAnimal feeling or sentience appears to have been particularly important in driving animal welfare policy upgrades. In the past twenty-five years, various governments, including the European Union, have passed legislation proclaiming that animals are sentient. There are now efforts to understand which animals are sentient and what should be done about those that appear to be able to feel pain and pleasure. The Animal Sentience journal is now planning to examine the extent of sentience in invertebrate phyla
The Promise and Perils of Insect Farming
Get PDFInsect farming is on the rise. Recent news stories have touted insects as “a six-legged solution to world hunger” (Time), “the next sustainable food revolution” (The Independent), and “the future of food” (NY Times). Insect protein is increasingly promoted alongside plant-based and cultivated meat as a green alternative to conventional meat.
Investors have noticed. In just the last year, French insect farming startups Ynsect and InnovaFeed raised 165M respectively, more than the whole sector had raised in all prior years combined. The UK’s first industrial-scale insect farm recently secured backing from retailer Tesco, startup incubator Y Combinator, and even the British government. The industry is now building insect farms on a huge new scale. Most existing farms can only produce a few metric tonnes of insects annually, and the whole global industry produces 10K - 67K tonnes. But just two new mega-farms under construction could produce 80K tonnes annually, and Ynsect says it alone will soon be producing 230K tonnes of insects every year. Growth forecasts are even more ambitious. The industry expects to grow 10X - 300X bigger in the next decade: to 500K tonnes of insects by 2030 (Rabobank), 1M tonnes by 2027 (ADM), or even 3M tonnes in Europe by 2030 (industry survey). So is the coming of insect farming a solution to factory farming — or an extension of it
The Economics of Biodiversity The Dasgupta Review Abridged Version
Get PDFIn 2019, Her Majesty’s Treasury (UK) commissioned Sir Partha Dasgupta, an economist and Professor Emeritus at Cambridge University to produce an independent, global review on the Economics of Biodiversity. Sir Partha was assisted by a multi-disciplinary Advisory Panel that included representatives of public policy, science, economics and business. The Review argues that countries should de-emphasize GDP as an index of progress and instead should focus on a national Wealth measure that includes an accounting for Natural Capital. After World War II, when the world was very different from what it is now, Sir Partha argues the economic questions being faced could be studied most productively by excluding Natural Capital and focusing on Produced Capital (e.g. infrastructure) and Human Capital. But today, as economists have begun to devise methods to value and to track Natural Capital, it is becoming apparent that while Produced and Human Capital may be increasing, Natural Capital is declining. The Review analyzes what we know about Natural capital and begins to address how Natural Capital might be incorporated into a valid assessment of national wealth and long-term sustainability
We Know Animals Have Personalities. Does That Make Them Persons?
Get PDFIn 1990, there were no studies on animal personalities. In 2020, there were over 900 published studies on animal personality. It has been found that some species (e.g., dogs, chimpanzees and orcas) can also be distinguished on the basis of the Big Five personality characteristics reported in humans. The paper concludes that there are excellent arguments for granting some basic rights to some animal species but having a personality is not one of them