Supporting World Wildlife Fund?

[Back-Space]

Has anyone ever donated to WWF, and do you think it's one of the better organizations to donate to? I remember my sister talking about donating to help protect animals and they send you a certificate and a stuffed animal, so I was thinking of purchasing this for her birthday

[harpy]

Well, I have read that there are some objections to them from a vegan point of view - I thought there were some threads about it on here but I can't find any recent ones at the moment. If you Google e.g. "WWF hunting" or "WWF vegan" you will find some discussions though, and then you can make up your mind what you think.

You can probably find other conservation charities with similar schemes - I have been sponsoring Orang Utans in Borneo for a friend for a couple of Christmases, that seems to go down well.

[zeenah]

in wwf you can "adopt" a tiger, panda or polar bear which are their greatest conservation goals now, where you give money only for the preservation of that particular animal and if you adopt a tiger you will get a tiger stuffed animal. i like their policy and donate money to them but that is because i live in norway where wwf is very big. if i were from uk, usa or similar i would probably donate to PETA (people for the ethical treatment of animals), because they do so much good only for animals

[twinkle]

I think they only seem to care about endangered animals rather than animals in general. I suppose it's better than nothing, but many animal rescue charities have similar "adoption" gift options which might be just as good or better. I've been on the local society for the prevention of cruelty to animals sanctuary website recently and they have an option to sponsor a kennel for a year, so you're feeding/paying towards vet bills for all the animals that pass through and you get to see who is in your kennel!

EDIT: That was to Back Space's original question, by the way, I wasn't trying to criticise zeenah. Welcome to the forum zeenah

[Back-Space]

I think they only seem to care about endangered animals rather than animals in general. I suppose it's better than nothing, but many animal rescue charities have similar "adoption" gift options which might be just as good or better. I've been on the local society for the prevention of cruelty to animals sanctuary website recently and they have an option to sponsor a kennel for a year, so you're feeding/paying towards vet bills for all the animals that pass through and you get to see who is in your kennel!

EDIT: That was to Back Space's original question, by the way, I wasn't trying to criticise zeenah. Welcome to the forum zeenah

Our SPCA did that in London It was extremely expensive though. I actually just got back from the Bow Valley one. Went up to give the cats some attention. I go back in a couple of days for level 3 and 4 training with the dogs, so I can start walking them. Now I'm looking ahead at how much money I need to make to afford a place that allows pets, then I can take one of them home with me

[Sgable84]

If you can, perhaps donate to a local animal rescue in your town/area. Sometimes they don't always have a stuffed animal to go along with your donation, but its the thought that counts

There are some groups like "farm sanctuary" that rescues abused/abandoned farm animals, some were rescued from slaughter houses. This would be a good place to donate to.
http://www.farmsanctuary.org/

[Back-Space]

I was just thinking WWF because the stuffed animal and the certificate made out in my sisters name would seem like more of a gift than "Hey, I donated $50 to our SPCA for you" I was wondering about www.aldf.org for donations. Just found out about them the other day.

"We may be the only lawyers on earth whose clients are all innocent."

[kikifromscotland]

I was just thinking WWF because the stuffed animal and the certificate made out in my sisters name would seem like more of a gift than "Hey, I donated $50 to our SPCA for you" I was wondering about www.aldf.org for donations. Just found out about them the other day.

"We may be the only lawyers on earth whose clients are all innocent."

Wow, that's amazing!!! I'd love to work as an animal rights lawyer after I graduate, but it's hard enough getting a traineeship now and I've not heard of any animal rights lawyers in the UK.

[Back-Space]

Yeah I doubt you'd make much money, but it would be very rewarding.

[kikifromscotland]

Well the area I want to go into (refugee/ asylum law) won't make much money either, much to my family/ boyfriend's despair- they were betting on me being a big earner so they can all retire early!! But it's hard enough even getting a job in law at all just now so I'll need to wait and see... and maybe eventually I can become an animal rights lawyer when the country wakes up a bit and sees that animal rights are important!

As for donating to WWF I'm still not sure what's wrong with it? Although I value the lives of all individuals independent of their value to their species, I can also see the importance of trying to protect endangered species as being distinct from supporting a shelter for companion animals...? Both great causes, just different.

[Back-Space]

I think defence lawyers make the big money don't they? You'd have to move to the U.S for that

If I noticed or heard that my local SPCA was struggling then I'd do my best to help out. I think they're doing quite well as far as animals go. In all of Bow Valley we've only got 9 or 10 dogs and 25 or so cats Some of them have come as far as 100km. London alone had a good 25 dogs, 50 cats... I can't wait to start walking the dogs There's one there that I desperately want to bring home, but my landlords wont allow it I think I'm going to donate to the ALDF though, might get a mug or two aswell since I'm kinda of short on dishes

[twinkle]

...

As for donating to WWF I'm still not sure what's wrong with it? Although I value the lives of all individuals independent of their value to their species, I can also see the importance of trying to protect endangered species as being distinct from supporting a shelter for companion animals...? Both great causes, just different.

There's nothing at all wrong with trying to protect endangered animals, but they seem to support culls of animals once they're not endangered any more, if they're getting "overpopulated". They seem to have a philosophy of "oh, wouldn't it be terrible if The Bear became extinct!... but I don't care about this individual bear if there are plenty of them". Of course, this is just going on a few websites I've read, I may be maligning them but that's the way it seems to me.

[harpy]

That's the sort of objection I remember reading, twinkle. Mind you I suspect prioritising the survival of species over that of individual animals comes with the territory of conservation, so I doubt if it's just the WWF that does that?

My personal feeling is that they are an OK organisation though not a vegan one. At least they are on the level as far as we know, unlike some of the lesser-known organisations. (I was reading about a sort of scam which looks like a sponsor-a-meerkat scheme but only gives a minute amount of money to meerkat conservation and keeps the rest.)

[kikifromscotland]

Yeah I saw those meerkat things harpy and they are just to cash in on the tv ads!!!

I have checked up on WWF and they do make some comments about hunting which are not great i.e. that in certain circumstances it is ok to hunt, nonetheless if you gave money to them I don't think they'd be using the money for anything unvegan, it's more just that their general policy/ attitude is not very vegan. But I think that conserving species is still an important goal and unless there is any similar organisation which has a more vegan outlook I don't see anything wrong with donating to WWF.

[kikifromscotland]

I think defence lawyers make the big money don't they? You'd have to move to the U.S for that

In Scotland, not unless you're Donald Finlay.

Commercial lawyers make the big bucks here but I don't feel like selling my soul :P