Paul Waldau is an attorney and philosopher. His studies focus on non-human animals place in world religions, with emphasis on humane rights for apes and other animals known to suffer, love, and aspire to a better life. The Question of Capacity. The leaders of the conservation movement come from fields and disciplines that don t address the causes of the wildlife crisis. If we want to make a difference in the most challenging wildlife crisis of this age, we must alter the social and moral strategies and tactics of key players in conservation and development.
Conservation is more about changing people than knowing animals.
The ability to see well various ethical and ecological issues involving wildlife is related to the relationship we establish here in our own domestic circumstances with nonhuman animals. Zoos must play a role in changing domestic values and perceptions in order to create ethically justifiable relationships with, and perceptions of, nonhuman animals. In the case of the nonhuman great apes, zoos can play a vital role in expanding understanding, perspectives, values, and education. One of the most important roles zoos have in this regard is informing the visiting public that some animals are so complex socially and mentally that it is, for ethical reasons, wrong to subordinate them by using the traditional practice of exhibiting them in captive circumstances. Whether here in North America or in great ape range countries, we must project our respect for hominoid sentience, sociality, and intelligence by housing and caring for captive apes in ways that heighten the public sense of kinship and concern for them.