False connection

[Kenn Kaufman]

Within the last few days, Paul Cherubini has posted a 
couple of items implying that "collecting/pinning and 
breeding/releasing" (his terminology) are equivalent 
activities because both are under attack from NABA. 

This strikes me as a spurious line of reasoning at both 
ends.  I fail to see any similarity between collecting on 
one hand and commercial breeding of butterflies for 
release on the other.  Continued collecting is essential 
not only for science but also, as Ron Gatrelle has pointed 
out eloquently on this list, for conservation. (Paraphrasing 
a little less eloquently, you can't protect it if you don't 
know what or where it is.)   Commercial breeding of 
butterflies for release at weddings and schools is not 
essential for anything except the profits of the individuals
involved (and it's easy to think of reasons why 
conservation biologists might take a dim view of 
raising large numbers of organisms for random release 
into the wild).  

There's also a fundamental difference in NABA's 
response to these activities.  NABA has come out very 
loudly and openly with an official position against butterfly 
releases.  They have no such position against collecting. 
I've looked through their website and several publications 
and have yet to find any anti-collecting statement, beyond 
the fact that people are generally asked not to collect on 
their field trips.  There may well be anti-collectors who 
belong but there are certainly collectors as well.  Recent 
issues of NABA's magazine have included articles by 
John Burns, Jim Brock, and George Austin, all guys 
who have definitely pinned a few; I can't see any of them 
being involved with an anti-collecting movement.  

In short, the connection between "collecting/pinning 
and breeding/releasing" looks to me like a false one. 
Mr Cherubini certainly has every right to defend his 
involvement in butterfly releases, but I don't think this 
is a valid way to do it.  

Kenn Kaufman
kennk at ix.netcom.com
Tucson, Arizona  





 
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