Subject: Re: FWS update (fwd)

From: Alvaro Jaramillo <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 5 Nov 1995 23:22:03 -0800

T. Kral writes:

  And I'm talking pardons and reforms for
>everyone, not just for the terrified Smithsonian curator but little 14
>year old Angela as well - please realize that without amateur support and
>youth interest, entomology is doomed to wither away. Maybe animal rights
>extremists like PETA, NABA, and other radicals thinks laws against bug
>collecting are great - but not for everybody.  Just because someone is a
>vegetarian doesn't mean everyone else has to be as well.

        I am interested in finding out exactly how NABA are "animal rights
extremists". I am a member of this organization and would not characterize
them in this way at all, or am I wrong? Please educate me on this subject,
or at least define what an "animal rights extremist" is.

     BTW, I am a biologist who has collected and worked intensively with
museum collections (mainly birds and mammals) and would not characterize
myself as an animal rights extremist or someone who would belong to such a
group.

Take care,

Alvaro Jaramillo
Half Moon Bay, CA

[email-masked]
http://www.quake.net/~alvaro/index.html

---

From: Thomas Kral <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 1995 19:19:17 -0700

The president of NABA, Jeffrey Glassberg, believes that all butterfly
collecting should be banned (personal comm.), his views are supported by
many others in NABA at present.

Personally, I see nothing wrong with someone who wishes to photograph or
observe butterflies and deliberately refrain from collecting them.  The
scientific importance of these endeavors are a bit diminished as no
voucher specimens are kept for further examination or record, but at
least the person gets interested in bugs. I photograph bugs myself.  My
comment "Just because someone is a vegetarian doesn't mean everyone else
has to be as well" means that if others wish to actually collect and kill
butteflies, they should not be discouraged or intimidated by others who
think otherwise - NABA would do alot better in the long run to adopt this
philosophy.

Sincerely,       Tom