Which animal would you like to save?
What criteria are you using when you are thinking about working for endangered animals or donating money to save a species?
The Ugly Animal Preservation Society (UAPS) works towards raising the profile of some more aesthetically challenged animals. The panda gets a lot of attention and it might be easier to feel that this animal is worth saving compared to the blobfish with a “miserable” expression and the promiscuous monkey with an enormous long nose.
Raising the profile of animals that are not at first sight anyway “cute and cuddly” makes us think about our underlying values and the way we are “automatically” drawn towards certain things, animals, or people. Drawing the attention to ugly animal is not in itself a new idea. There are many of the ugliest competitions such as the world’s ugliest dog, cat, men, and women competitions and using an ugly model. Yet the idea can be used to generate new ideas for things that we need to turn other attention to make the world if not a better place at least a more interesting place.
What ideas can you think of?
Photo Simon Elgood, Flickr, worldwildlife.org
