Christopher Walken Speaks Up for Animals in New Humane Society Video

Christopher Walken Speaks Up for Animals
Photo Courtesy: UPI.com

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – October 18, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) — Christopher Walken is appearing in a new Wildlife Public Service Announcement from the Humane Society.

The Academy Award-winning actor is featured in the Humane Society’s conservation campaign video criticizing urban development and urging U.S. residents to learn to live with “wild neighbors.”

The ad references the humane approach to wildlife problems, which is based on three principles:

  • Respect for the environment
  • Tolerance and understanding of living things
  • A willingness to resolve conflicts using non-lethal means

Appreciating the environment we share with other living things is one of the most important components of wildlife conflict resolution. Often the first and best defense is to let natural forces resolve the issue without intervening.

Tolerance and understanding are also crucial—many so-called wildlife “problems” arise out of our irrational fears and lack of understanding about wildlife. For example, realizing that a fox seen crossing the yard at during the day is not a rabies threat but a member of the natural community, going about her business will remove the immediate impulse to call animal control.

Many conflicts can be satisfyingly resolved without any loss of life. In fact, non-lethal solutions tend to be more permanent. Because lethal methods are quicker and easier (though by no means more efficient), it can take a greater effort to advocate for and adopt nonlethal methods.

Six Steps for Non-Lethal Conflict Resolution:

Non-lethal conflict resolution is an area most people have only just begun to investigate and understand. The following six-step evaluation will help you resolve wildlife conflicts safely and humanely.

1.  Determine the problem—and consider whether it is a problem at all. Learning about the habits of your wild neighbors will help you decide. For example, if a family of woodchucks moves into the backyard will they attack your child or your pet? If you educate yourself about the behavior of these animals, you’ll see that they are not a threat.

Photo Courtesy: wdfw.wa.gov
Photo Courtesy: wdfw.wa.gov

2.  If there is a problem, collect information that will help you solve the problem. Identify the species involved, the kind of damage, how long it has been happening, whether there are young animals present, and what can be done to solve the conflict in a humane and permanent way. (write, photograph, or record all the evidence you can, including sounds, especillay cries of young animals, footprints, tooth or claw marks, feces left behind, etc.)

3.  Assess the seriousness and extent of the problem. Important considerations: safety or health concerns to people or pets, the likelihood that the conflict will happen again, and whether the damage appears to be seasonal or ongoing.

Photo Courtesy: wdfw.wa.gov
Photo Courtesy: wdfw.wa.gov

Timing is often a factor–many problems with animals last only a short time, or happen only during certain seasons (raccoons, for instance, may choose your chimney for a nursery, but they will leave once their young have grown enough to follow them out).

 

 

4.  Take action, but only after all the facts have been collected. Action should be one of your last steps, and it should not have to involve killing animals. Exclusion, environmentally sound repellents, changing human or animal behavior, and habitat modification are all viable non-lethal strategies.

5.  Evaluate results. Did your action resolve the conflict or merely address the symptoms? Your solution should get at the underlying cause of the problem if it’s going to be effective over the long-term.

6.  Seek help. You may not be able to solve the problem by yourself. Click here for information on where to buy appropriate products or seek help with sick, injured, or orphaned wildlife. Visit our Top Ten Problems section to learn about how to solve common problems with wild neighbors safely and humanely.

5 COMMENTS

  1. thank you Dhristopher Walken!!! it’s about time someone with access to the media speaks out with these basic princi0ples. Humans quickly assume wildlife is diseased or aggressive and are quick to KILL . It’s disgusting and ignorant. People are to blame for wildlife going through their unsecured trash Stay OUT of the forests where wildlife live…you morons Animals are killed because you went into their habitat and they are naturally frightened

  2. Thank you so much, We Need so much Help Trying to SAVE Our Wild Life They Need Our Help. All the Trapping, Poising, Hunting them & using Air Plans to kill them needs to Stop Now, Our Wolves are Almost Gone. Please Help Us Save Them.

  3. Human beings cannot keep taking more and more land. The human race is the only species that is breeding totally out of control while we are ordering culls and removal of animals living exactly where they belong. We are taking up land that is not ours to take, greed and over population is a human problem not an animals.

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