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Message: <blockquote data-quote="thomasdonegan" data-source="post: 3289171" data-attributes="member: 5190">As someone who has collected quite a lot of bird specimens for usage in basic research, I can't express how strongly I disagree with the above. Conservation is all about ethics. Some people I know think our network of reserves in Colombia is a waste of time because we are preventing local people from hunting animals or chopping down trees and these are useful economic activities that create jobs.   Killing any organism should be all about ethics.  If researchers do not recognise that there is some "bad" that comes from killing another organism and that anything useful for research goes, then there is a big disconnect from the rest of the world.Hitler had lots of jews killed for purposes of basic "research".  Thousands of whales are killed each year by the Japanese for "research".  We should not have a discussion, right, because some scientists thought it was worthwhile.  Unless the research community is willing to recognise that there is some "bad" that comes from killing, there is some ethical dimension in killing (and handling) other organisms, and that everything should be carefully considered case by case and these steps only taken when properly justified, then you are correct, there is nothing to debate - just come to our Proaves reserves in Colombia and kill all the birds that have been tamed to come to feeders for visitors to put them in a museum drawer like some of the other US museums have done...</blockquote>

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