Indeed. Actually, it wasn't my intention to imply to the contrary.

Admittedly, from an economic and relative cost-of-energy standpoint, it's a
highly inefficient method of trying to save the planet. Or even an
individual, for that matter, in the global scheme of things. The practice
is rife with immensely hard work, heartache, and frustration. And I believe
(note the insertion of opinion there) that most conservationists-and I
daresay most rehabilitators-would agree that preservation and conservation
are preferable in many respects to rehabilitation.

However, when personally faced with the ethical dilemma of what to do when
faced with a suffering living being, my inclination is to try and DO
something. I just want to FIX it. You're right in that it does make me
feel good in the long run, even when I may have failed in the short run. It
makes me feel as though I'm being true to my values, and, so to speak,
"walking my talk." I feel better about who I am and why I'm here when I'm
trying to mitigate some of the damage that we've done to the planet.
That's not written with any hint of sarcasm or "attitude" associated with
it. It's really just very sincere.

By the same token, I respect the opinion that rehabilitation is an
inefficient effort. That's why so many people try to use education to
support conservation efforts. And when you're talking about relative
weights with respect to global impact, they're right. Will that make me
stop putting the effort into rehab? Probably not. But I appreciate the
scope of your assertion, and the philosophical spirit within which it was
offered.

As for the "value" of rehabilitation? That's always a tricky area. How can
one really measure intangibles like morals, values and ethics? I believe
that rehab is a valuable practice despite its inefficiencies. But I can
also appreciate how the "forest for the trees" people might suspect it's
overall value, as well.

-Jacki Bricker
Woodinville, Washington


-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Foote


On Fri, 14 May 1999, Jacki Bricker wrote:

[snip...]

>
> All I can do is speak from my own breadth of experience regarding codes of
> ethics and practice when caring for wild animals. What else CAN I do?

Jacki--

this was an informative and interesting post...it is, however,
based on the assumption that Rehabbing wildlife is a useful
and necessary thing to do.

It might interest you to know that the last time the rehabbing
thread went round and round, we finally agreed to disagree on
the value of this activity. There were many examples given
where money/time/effort/energy was spent to no avail..it didn't
matter in the final analysis.. as I recall some of the things
cited were the amount of resource rehabbing an albatross and
flying it back to the S. Pacific, the attempt to remove oil
from the Valdez'd waterfowl, most of which died anyway, etc.

As I recall, Dennis Paulson wrote the final post which essentially
put together all the info up to that time and settled it
with all of us agreeing the rehabbing makes rehabbers feel
good...the value of the activity was never settled and is
still suspect.

Tom