On hybridisation and Nazism

[Guest guest]

Thanks Shub, you highlighted my point nicely. If one just looks at the roots

of conservation biology (it¹s own evolution and genetic makeup) one can

clearly see this was a concept born to die out quickly due to inherent flaws

and misguided behaviours:

 

1. Conservation was originally started to benefit the human species, not the

animal ones, and was based on value per annum that could be brought in, in

USD. I guess things went array when Muir split with Pinchot in 1897 over

preservation vs. conservationism, at least in the USA.

2. Conservationism was already going to the dogs with the inception of the

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in 1895 when the organization was

chartered as the New York Zoological Society, netting the following

concentration camps for animals: Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium, Central Park

Zoo, Queens Zoo and Prospect Park Zoo, all of which I visited as a child and

even then noticed that something was terribly wrong.

3. The net historical outcome of the conservation movement can be

illustrated in microcosm by what has been accomplished by the WCS in

partnership with the Sarawak Forestry Corporation in Malaysia, where now 97%

of all primary rainforest has been cleared. Extrapolate this behaviour to

all other conservation efforts stemming from this corporate culture, and you

can see where we are today.

 

And now these corporate heads and scientific minions are battling with true

preservationists over genetic purity?!? This is fodder for an intellectual

sci-fi novel at best; while the scientists fight on how to conserve instead

of preserve, all animal life as we know it on the planet vanishes, taking

everything else with it. Think of ³The Day After Tomorrow² meets ³Born

Free.²

 

But just complaining about history is not very productive, while changing it

is. But if history shows us anything, it shows us that great people have

risen to the occasion and spoke and fought for what was right and true. So

who are the Plato¹s, Aristotle¹s, and Hegel¹s of today? We need to seek out

these folks and get some advice on how to include all life into the

circumference of our current-and-ever-expanding human circle. And alas, we

may have ignore the rantings of those that don¹t dare to help.

 

Jigs

In Nepal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mon, 9 Jun 2008 23:37:12 +0530

aapn <aapn >

On hybridisation

 

 

 

 

Dear colleagues,

Thank you for the many messages the purport of

which I hope will be passed to the Central Zoo Authority. Hybridisation is

an issue that interests me greatly so I will endeavour to respond to the

issues you have raised one by one:

1) Dr Jain : Indeed there was an issue regarding the Chhatbir Zoo lions two

years ago. I was approached by WSPA for information on this and since I had

surveyed the zoo I gave them whatever I could. The hybrid lions of Chhatbir

Zoo were surely suffering from a debilitating disease but media reports made

it seem that it was a result of hybridisation. It might well have been due

to inbreeding and it should be borne in mind that hybridisation and

inbreeding are different phenomena. This recent report on the Tirupati Zoo

lions is one of the very few in the mainstream press that sympathises with

the plight of hybrid animals.

Nine years ago, I asked Dr Michael Buford of the Institute of Zoology in

London on what he thought about preserving the genetic purity of Asiatic

Lions. He replied that maybe the Asian Lions would only survive by

hybridisation because they were genetically crippled as a species.

2) Kerry: I am aware of the Ruddy Duck hybridisation factor that allegedly

threatens the purity of White Headed Ducks. If the Ruddy Ducks are now

living freely in Britain and are migrating to other countries and

hybridising with other species of ducks, they should be allowed to get on

with it.

3) Kim: If you have read Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, then you will realise

that a lie repeated very often assumes the shape of truth. In his

autobiography Hitler skilfully and forcefully describes the theory of

Herrenvolk that preaches the purity of a master race. Hitler's ideas on

racial purity have been censured today, but when it comes to animals we

somehow accept applying the same principle.

4)Jigme: The Nazi regime coerced and persuaded a lot of scientists to

express disapproval for hybridisation and present it as scientific fact.

Also, in the nineteen twenties and thirties, many white anthropologists made

strenuous efforts to deny the Out of Africa hypothesis for the evolution of

Homo Sapiens purely because it would imply that we are all descended from

black people. Again, many conservation biologists today are denying the

available evidence to blame hybrid animals for diluting the purity of many

species.

5) Edwin: Should animals be allowed to hybridise in captivity? This is

something which ran through my mind when I conducted the Indian Zoo Inquiry.

There are several aspects. I provide one example. The world's only

successful reintroduction of a tiger in the wild was that of Tara, a hybrid

tiger that was released in Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh by Billy

Arjan Singh. Tara was obtained from Twycross Zoo in England and had Siberian

genes in her. She reportedly bred in the wild and apparently her offspring

have shown traits of Siberian Tigers too and they have been spotted in

Dudhwa recently. Was it a right move to introduce a hybrid tiger in the wild

in India and introduce foreign genes in the resident wild population? My

personal view is that it was right to do so since Tara proved that a hybrid

tiger could survive well in the wild in Indian conditions. But the jury is

still out on Billy Arjan Singh's move for conservationists are still

debating whether Tara diluted the gene pool of the Indian tiger and whether

that was desirable.

At one point of time, there were Tigons(TigerX Lion) and

Litigons(LionXTigon) in Kolkata Zoo. Was it right to produce such creatures?

As an experimental move, one could question the motives of the zoo but since

they were brought into existence by humans, the onus lay on us to look after

them properly. Incidentally, there are many of these Tiger Lion hybrids in

captivity in USA.

If you look around you, hybrid animals exist in abundance and are doing

well for themselves. Almost all stray dogs in India are hybrid, there are

hybrid bird species and even cetacean species have been known to hybridise.

Many zoos also have hybrid Orang Utans(SumatranX Bornean) and they are

perfectly healthy creatures.

If the Central Zoo Authority has a discriminatory policy against hybrid

creatures in captivity, now might be the time to tell them in no uncertain

terms that their policy is misplaced and prejudiced. I have already done so.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. If you receive any response on

this issue from the Central Zoo Authority, kindly keep us posted on AAPN.

Best wishes and kind regards,

 

 

 

On 6/9/08, Kim Bartlett <anpeople

<anpeople%40whidbey.com> > wrote:

>

> Edwin, I would rather there not be ANY breeding of animals - not in

> zoos, not for purported reintroduction to the wild, not for pets, not

> for meat, and not for any other human purpose. But if hybrids exist

> in captivity, then people have a moral obligation to take care of

> them, and if they exist in the wild, people should leave them alone.

> If hybrids escape captivity and are able to survive in the wild, more

> power to them, and if they are able to pass on their genes via

> reproduction with similar species, then they obviously have a place

> in nature.

> Kim

>

> >Hi Kim,

> >

> >Why would any European be offended? If it was the Asian that

> >travelled there and hybridized with the Neanderthaler they both

> >should be ashamed of themselves, naughty naughty! It doesn't matter

> >that the Japanese are actually migrated Koreans, Indians are

> >actually Russians and that the real pure Americans are very hard to

> >find nowadays as they somehow did not want to hybridize with the

> >Europeans...

> >

> >A hybrid bear (Malayan Sun bear with Asiatic Black bear) was found

> >in the wild in Cambodia a few years ago, in Thailand there is a

> >group of Rhesus macaques that have hybridized with pig-tails in the

> >wild. I am sure there are more examples. But this is all in the

> >wild. I don't think people (and especially not professional zoos)

> >should hybridize animals in captivity, why create more species if we

> >cannot even protect the ones we have already. Besides this we don't

> >know enough about the risks yet, what happens if these hybrids

> >escape a zoo and get to live in the wild?

> >

> >Edwin Wiek

> >

>

> --

> Kim Bartlett, President of Animal People, Inc.

> Postal mailing address: P.O. Box 960, Clinton WA 98236 U.S.A.

> email <ANPEOPLE <ANPEOPLE%40whidbey.com>

<ANPEOPLE%40whidbey.com>> web-site:

> http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/

>

>