After my hurried introduction on my first day, it was much
the same the following day although my duties were completely different. As pretty much everyone has managed to tell
me so far I managed to time my arrival on the busiest weekend of the year as
today was their open day (phote below). This brings in
thousands of people and it is the centre’s main fund raising event so of course
this means a lot of stress and people running around clutching pile’s of brick
and brack. I have worked on stalls in
the past and also been working in retail since I was 14 so I did feel more in
my comfort zone when it came to dealing with the public. Again I did feel slightly that I was thrown
into the deep end though when I was told that I would be managing the lucky dip
alone. This wasn’t just any lucky dip
either as it involved a tent that was filled with sawdust that the children had
to root around in to find the prizes.
This of course meant that I was in there as often as the children to
bury new prizes so did end the day covered in sawdust! It was worth it at the end of the day though
as I personally made £275 (overall amount was over £11,000) and many of the families said that they would
come back again. The children in
particular were interested not just in the lucky dip but learning about the
animals. One little girl was very
passionate about hedgehogs and was devastated when we told her that we only had
one in the hospital that wasn’t open to the public. However, we managed to get her in to see it
in the end and I’m sure it was worth the minimal disturbance to fuel an
inspiration that may lead to a potential career in conservation, perhaps even
focused on hedgehogs which of course needing as much help as they can get as they are critically endangered.
I did manage to get a break from the lucky dip at one point
to look over the stalls from other charities.
I firstly made a beeline for the RSPB as I’m striving to get as much
information and contacts with them as it is an organisation that I hope to work with in the future. I did manage to have an interesting talk with
one of the wardens who gave me some helpful advice on my dissertation and
suggested reserves that I should visit.
Another charity there was ‘Leage Against Cruel Sports’ which
involved phasing out activities that harmed wildlife. One of the ways in which they do this is by
creating petitions, examples being one to reinforce the
hunting law which has lately been under debate and one preventing the badger cull
which is of course very topical at the moment.
As a passionate animal lover I find it difficult to consider culling as
ever a good option although I know that in conservation it does occur, often to
save more vulnerable species. However,
in the case of the badger cull, it is to preserve the spread of TB to cattle so
the main motivation for the cull is economical reasons rather than
environmental ones. I am against this
cull due to this reason, plus the fact that after 9 years of scientific research,
it was concluded that “no practicable method of badger culling can reduce the
incidence of cattle TB to any meaningful extent” (ISG report).
Despite this evidence, this cull is still being discussed and
whilst it is in a state of flux, it was been reported that many farmers are
taking matters into their own hands and killing any badgers on their land, even
though they are still a protected species.
I think the most effective way of combating this is by educating these
farmers on the real risk that these badgers pose and reinforcing the fact that
this action is still against the law and they therefore will face repercussions.
This is just another example of the constant battle between
farmers and conservationists. However,
in more recent years these areas are becoming more integrated (e.g. through the
environmental stewardship scheme that rewards farmers financially for managing their
land in an environmentally friendly way) so hopefully a stage will be reached
where both farmers and wildlife can live in harmony.
No comments:
Post a Comment