The EAZA European Carnivore Campaign
Meat eating animals are an essential part of the biodiversity of our planet, many are spectacular or beautiful, all are charismatic but charisma alone does not guarantee survival and they can be persecuted because their needs are often in conflict with our own. Furthermore, being at the top of the food chain they are particularly vulnerable to the challenges of our making. In 2008/2009 the European Carnivore Campaign was directed towards members of the Carnivora [what is a carnivore] and the theme was "Living Together". The current, 2009/2010, campaign has broadened its focus to cover other meat eating species such as raptors and marine mammals while at the same time reducing the scope of its theme to concentrate on one single problem; the use of poison to control wildlife. If carnivores are to survive in Europe for future generations to enjoy, we not only need strategies to integrate their presence into modern life in a crowded continent rather than actions to remove them.
The campaign aims:
- To Stop Poison in Europe;
- To raise money in support of specific projects that either monitor the use of poison in Europe or which mitigate its effects. Read [more] about projects;
- To make people conscious of the diversity of wildlife that still survives both in their own country;
As well as:
- To raise public awareness of the expansion in both numbers and range of a number of large carnivore species;
- To draw attention to the way in which our life styles and activities endanger the future of many of our rare and endangered carnivore species;
- To explain why the presence of carnivores is a good indicator of the health of our environment;
- To teach our members and the public that conservation is needed at home and not just in the far flung corners of the earth.
This is the eighth EAZA conservation campaign. Read [more] about these campaigns.
