How serious are environmental threats to animal welfare?
Jan Creamer: ADI endeavours to alert governments, politicians and media worldwide to the effect our species is having on our planet – the detrimental effects of our activities are something that we like to ignore, but even now, the consequences of our lack of foresight is coming back to bite us. For example our ‘My mate’s a primate’ campaign identifies the greatest threats to the survival of our closest relatives, the primates, and how the damage we do affects us in the long run. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has announced that 48 per cent of all primate species are either endangered, or critically endangered. Human activity is devastating their forest homes, and damaging our climate at the same time, in addition to the environmental damage, the trade in primates for laboratories, for bushmeat, entertainment and pet trade is devastating wild populations. For example, bushmeat hunters are killing 6,000 western lowland gorillas a year (from a total population of less
