NABA proposes policy that could harm nearly 1,000,000 Painted

[Paul Cherubini]

Ken wrote:

> I find the above statement a bit surprising. A long time ago, I
> had occasion to ship some live butterflies from Alaska to 
> Wisconsin, by FedEx. It turned out that, provided the butterflies 
> were well fed just before shipping, there was no problem with 
> in-shipment mortality even if a few days were spent in transit.

I agree Ken that sometimes one can get lucky and all or most 
Painted Lady adults will survive overnight shipping. In
actual practice, however, the butterflies must go about 48 hours 
without nectar or water because they are typically shipped FedEx 
on Thursdays to arrive Friday for a Saturday afternoon wedding
or funeral (or shipped Friday for Saturday arrival in the case
of Sunday weddings or funerals).

Ironically, NABA makes a big deal about butterfly casualties 
during and after shipment on it's website:
http://www.naba.org/action.html

"The commercially-raised and released butterflies often 
suffer. These butterflies often arrive dead or dying, and then 
are often released into hostile environments at inappropriate 
times of the year."

The irony is that by forcing the inexperienced releasers to
paint up the Painted Ladies like this:
http://www.mindspring.com/~cherubini/paint.JPG
NABA will have promoted a practice that greatly
increases the probability of butterfly injury and
suffering.

Paul Cherubini

 
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