Crimes Against Crows

The meaning of "conservation" has changed significantly over time. Originally, conservation was centered around protecting the environment and the planet as a whole. This includes protecting all wildlife, forests, plants, and ecosystems for their inherent value on our planet. This came from a great respect and interest in nature. However, more recently, this term has been manipulated to focus on conserving resources for human use, mainly hunting and fishing. This new perspective portrays conservation less as a commitment to protecting nature, but instead to promoting economic interests.

One unsettling example of how the term conservation has been twisted is the act of crow bombing. This is a practice that involves the killing of crows because they often destroy crops and the nests of other birds such as ducks. Chapter 9 of Fuzz by Mary Roach depicts the methods used to control certain bird populations, which left me very unsettled. She describes how the government sponsored bombing tests on the crows to see what materials were more effective. After one test, thousands of crows laid dead in an instant. What is truly horrible is who could have possibly done this? It was actually carried out by a local conservation commissioner whose very name suggests the protection of wildlife. The irony is truly shocking. The unfortunate reality is people who are experts on crows and other animals often struggle to actually find work. Instead of conserving wildlife, they are actually harming many species and conducting questionable experiments on these animals.