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Museum specimens: science, conservation and morality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2010

J. V. Remsen Jr
J. V. Remsen Jr
Affiliation:
Museum of Natural ScienceLouisiana State UniversityBaton RougeLouisiana 70803U.S.A.
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Bekoff and Elzanowski (1997) (hereafter “BE”) have criticized my paper on the continuing importance of collecting scientific specimens of birds, focusing primarily on a brief section concerning “moral objections” to scientific collecting. BE seem to state either that it is acceptable to kill birds as long as every effort is made to reduce suffering, or that it is never acceptable to kill birds because suffering is unavoidable, depending on which portion of their essay is regarded as paramount. If their message is the former, then I and other museum scientists concur completely, because we already do this (contrary to the implications of BE). If their message is the latter, then we have an impasse, with two different sets of personal moral standards. Although virtually every sentence by BE can be criticized, I restrict my rebuttal to the “top 10” most-revealing statements.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bird Conservation International , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , December 1997 , pp. 363 - 366
Copyright
Copyright © Birdlife International 1997

References

Bekoff, M. and Elzanowski, A. (1997) Collecting birds: the importance of moral debate. Bird Conserv. Int.: 7: 357–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Remsen, J. V. (1995). The importance of continued collecting of bird specimens to ornithology and bird conservation. Bird Conserv. Int. 5: 145–180.Google Scholar
Skutch, A. F. (1996) The minds of birds. College Station: Rexas A & M University Press.Google Scholar