Exploring “Humane” Dimensions of Wildlife

Abstract

The field of wildlife management has been on a collision course with human nature for some time, documented by the growing and important body of human dimensions of wildlife research. As the evolution of this field continues, a new dimension of “humane” considerations in wildlife management should be investigated. An exploratory online study of opinions about management decisions with 351 British Columbians of various wildlife engagement levels was conducted. Many participants were not willing to accept trading-off individual animals to protect populations, or killing other species to protect an endangered species, expressing both conservation and animal welfare rationales. Participants' wildlife engagement level and utilitarian or protectionist values influenced how they perceived the acceptability of invasive monitoring and population reduction techniques. The application of animal welfare science to conservation can improve the humaneness of practices and in turn, will help managers communicate with the public and generate support for their programs.

Keywords:

• animal welfare
• humane
• intervention
• invasiveness
• lethal control

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all participants and to the organizations that distributed the survey to their memberships. We also thank Peter Danielson and his research team at the W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics for valuable assistance in survey design and programming; Catherine Schuppli for advice during data collection; and the journal reviewers for constructive comments. Funding was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.