Organizations that focus on preserving wildlife, whether it be a particular species or the bigger picture, are nothing new.
The list is a long one, ranging from the Nature Conservancy to the World Wildlife Fund.
Sometimes a misunderstanding about such a group’s motives can prove to be a bit of shock. I still remember the horror experienced by an acquaintance of mine when she discovered that Ducks Unlimited was originally formed to preserve waterfowl habitat and increase bird numbers so that hunters could eventually kill them.
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That was an awkward conversation.
However, most of these groups make sure their supporters know exactly what they’re getting into so that they can protect the lifeblood of all such organizations — fundraising.
Membership sales are a major source of revenue, but other popular methods can include T-shirt sales, door-to-door canvassing drives, fishing derbies and other special one-off fundraising campaigns.
These strategies are all fine and dandy, but I recently stumbled across an idea that definitely kicks fundraising up a notch.
A former research fellow in the zoology department at Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit has come up with this fascinating notion: why not charge a royalty on every item that incorporates the leopard print pattern and use the money to fund efforts to protect leopards.
She admits she’s not entirely sure how to go about collecting such a levy but figures the revenues could be astronomical, considering the popularity of leopard print patterns.
Dismiss it as pie-in-the-sky dreaming if you wish, but I think she might be on to something.
Consider this, if you will. There never seems to be enough money for agricultural research, but what if we could tap into an iconic bastion of pop culture and siphon off some of those riches for hard-working agricultural producers?
I’m thinking about cattle. The genre of the western, whether a movie or TV show, is maybe not what it once was, but it’s still a formidable force in popular entertainment.
And what does almost every western have? Well, cattle, of course.
What if we could figure out a way to charge Hollywood a small royalty every time a cow, bull, heifer or steer shows up on the big or tiny screen? Think about what researchers could do with that kind of cash.
Who’s dreaming now?
