Your Letters and Comments
Humane Wildlife Control
I welcomed the article on wildlife fertility control and the key roles played by Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick, Dr. John Turner, and others in developing the PZP immunocontraceptive vaccine to control reproduction in free-living wildlife. However, the article failed to mention another key contributor. Dr. John Grandy persuaded The Humane Society of the U.S. to invest (together with the Elinor Patterson Baker Trust) over US$3 million over the past 15 years to demonstrate that PZP is safe and effective and can be delivered remotely to stabilize and reduce free-living wild horse, white-tailed deer, and elephant populations. There are still ethical and technical issues to be addressed, usually on a case-by-case basis, but opposition to the technology and grumblings about its impracticality appear to be based mostly on opposition to the perceived agenda of the humane movement than to any coherent analysis of the merits of dart-delivered immunocontraceptives.
Andrew N. Rowan
Executive Vice President for Operations Humane Society International
Washington, D.C.
“As Jeremijenko says, ‘we set up our relationships with animals in distinct and often superficial ways.’ That might be true, but I’m not unhappy about it: Separate menus for geese and humans seems like a wholly justifiable distinction.”
Excerpted from The Grinder food media blog on chow.com by Nicholas Day
Pigeons Aren’t Elephants
The recent article by Douglas Fox on wildlife conservation was comprehensive and well written. Mr. Fox, however, missed a key contraceptive tool already approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for birds—geese and pigeons. The new product, called OvoControl®, is already in use in a variety of U.S. cities. Pigeons are not elephants, but the technology faces similar social and political barriers and concerns.
Erick Wolf
