© Flickr/Peyman Zehtab FardHave you ever noticed that many groups send mailings with really shocking images of animals in cages, being tortured, or having been treated inhumanely? The sad truth is that we wouldn’t be able to send those images if they didn’t exist, and those images represent what is a poor state of affairs with our treatment of many species of wild animals.[teaserbreak]
But, what we also must remember to do is give you—our supporters—good news. I have been pleased that in the past few weeks alone, several global companies have made affirmative decisions to join the growing number of individuals and corporations in acknowledging our (i.e., the human species’) role in helping wildlife.
Earlier this month, Yoox Net-a-Porter Group (the world’s leading online luxury fashion retailer) adopted a fur free policy. Thank you Net-a-Porter! Also earlier this month, Rakuten Ichiba (Japanese internet retail giant; affiliated with Buy.com in the United States) adopted a policy banning all ivory product sales (and this follows their prior decisions to ban whale and dolphin products). Although this was presumably in response to court decisions and public pressure, we must nonetheless applaud a company that establishes a policy that will benefit wildlife and impact its bottom line. Thank you Rakuten Ichiba! Other major companies, like Google, have helped pave the way by previously implementing policies on some of these same issues. So, thank you Sergey Brin (a fellow alum of Eleanor Roosevelt High School).
Now, does this mean that our work is done? Of course not. Just yesterday, the New York Times published an article about recent work by researchers at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and Stanford University, which notes that the sixth mass extinction of animal species is far more severe than previously understood. The researchers do not—and likely cannot—say conclusively what is the cause of this “annihilation,” as they put it, but certainly humans, big corporations, and climate change all have an impact.
This is why we must take a moment to applaud companies that make the right decisions, regardless of the reason, and even if those companies are not perfect. Preventing annihilation of a species may require a step by step approach, and I, for one, want to share the good news that some companies are taking a first step.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
