Co-hosted spring meetup about how to best help wild animals
On April 12, 2020, Animal Ethics co-hosted a virtual meetup together with Wild Animal Initiative and Rethink Priorities. All three organizations work to promote the support of helping wild animals. The purpose of the meetup was to discuss this issue, and to improve our effectiveness at it. The event was attended by 26 people belonging to seven different organizations and with very different areas of expertise. Their backgrounds included natural science, policy, law, philosophy, and communication, as well as varied experiences in activism.
The event started with a short introduction to the essential points of wild animal suffering by one of Animal Ethics’ members, followed by a presentation by each of the three co-hosting organizations of the work they do. After this, we had several breakout sessions in which attendees discussed how to best advance concern for animals in the wild in different areas (such as animal activism, natural science, law and politics, and others). The meetup ended with a Q&A session where strategies and possible confusions were clarified. The notes of the event are published here.
This event allowed us to get to know each other better, to learn from each other’s experiences, and to improve coordinated efforts to help wild animals. We are also very happy that participants found it useful and were enthusiastic about future events that will be organized.
We will soon be announcing other activities, as well as increasing the number of online events we do generally. Before the emergence of the pandemic, Animal Ethics representatives had plans to give talks this spring in the USA, the UK, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Argentina, and Uruguay. It’s uncertain if and when we will be able to resume these activities. So we will increase our activism online instead to further our outreach goals. In addition, we will continue to collaborate with other organizations that are concerned about the situation of animals in the wild, in order to find the best ways to coordinate our efforts and improve our effectiveness.