BlingBling wrote:I personally wouldn't put an otherwise excellent zoo that made a difficult decision in order to protect a child in potential danger on the bad list while a "rescue" called SaveAFox that kept animals alive for donations that should have been out down, used donations to fund getting tattoos, and various other very questionable things like buying their so called rescue foxes is on the good. I'm just putting this out there just to note that you should always do a deeper dive on facilities than just surface level before deciding whether or not to support them. I've been guilty of blind support too in the past
The Cincinnati zoo also removes animals from their parents to interact with them on video to get donations using claims of abandonment. I don’t think they’re excellent at all, and listed harambe as a recognizable preventable mistake they made but it’s not the only one. I also plan to add other AZA zoos who’ve moved in a direction of exploitation (San Diego for offering “cheetah weddings” for example, putting wildcats on leashes)
Save a fox removes unusable animals from fur farms in order to take them without paying for them, and finds them appropriate homes who are equipped to handle exotics or keeps them to tend to medical needs. Keeping a genetically weak animal alive while paying to treat a fatal illness is hardly exploitative when you consider they acknowledged they were mainly trying to provide them a comfortable home for end of life care. I’d be open to discussing the misused donations, but I’ve never seen evidence that prove your claims are more than biased accusations against a somewhat controversial individual for the way she presents herself and her rescue. Not euthanizing an animal does not make a rescue bad, but allocating donations for unnecessary personal endeavors is wack and more than up for discussion of course! However, embezzlement is a serious crime, and she is a 501c3 licensed facility, donations are traced and tax deductible.
This whole thread is about ditching blind support, so I more than welcome these criticisms and challenges to my preconceived ideas about these facilities, and will do more research. Please feel free to include evidence of your claims of misuse, but so far what you’ve presented me seems to be unsubstantiated surface level gossip. Meanwhile, the Cincinnati zoo is winning awards for breeding in captivity for “conservation” and then removing any chance the wild animals have of remaining wild by raising them with human hands away from their mothers. That is more specifically what this is about, but like I said, if Mikayla is in fact abusing her position as a rescue to take funds for personal use, that would be super sketchy and bad. I just have never seen nor heard evidence suggesting the things you listed to be fact as you’ve presented them- and I do tons of research on the matter.
There are so many people who stand to profit from exploiting animals who spend a lot of time and energy trashing names in rescue for the sake of making their exotic animals more movable, and even more who believe animals should not be in captivity at all to the point of despising any entity that cares for them. Even Carole Baskin is listed on hate pages with misrepresented claims of misuse of animals and donations for personal decisions made that not everyone will agree with. Regardless, that type of discussion is what this thread is for, and I thank you for bringing this to my attention and initiating the conversation! I don’t want you to feel like your comment is misplaced or unwelcome, I really do want to get to the bottom of this and discuss the ethics behind every situation like it! The animals are most important, and it’s my biggest passion to ensure the facilities in charge of their care are held responsible and treating them properly.
⧗наташа⧗ wrote:If you want, you can make one about foxes ♡
That’s alright, I listed the facility in the header so it’s more than up for discussion here! Red foxes are wild animals too, just because they’re canids who’ve been partially domesticated with fancy colors doesn’t make them irrelevant to the discussion or excluded from our cause :3 wild foxes should remain wild, and domestic foxes deserve respect and dignity just as well! Save a fox is a gray area in that they tend by hand to exotic pets who should not have been domesticated in the first place, but I feel they give them proper dignified lives despite the captivity. I have admittedly been skeptical of her facility and the way she runs it, and the ethics behind hand raising foxes, so I’ve had my eye on her for years, however the animals whose lives she’s saved highly encourage me to remain supportive! I would love to see more specialized rescues for other exotic animals like hers, such as reptile and small captive wildcat rescues!
Regardless of the direction of this conversation, the admins have requested I remove the negative list from the topic.
From now on, we will be discussing the removal or addition from the positive list, rather than adding to the negative.
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