Born Free USA's Devan Schowe on animal advocacy, ethics, welfare and conservation in the USA

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This episode features a conversation with Devan Schowe, Campaigns Associate with animal advocacy and wildlife nonprofit, Born Free USA.

Born Free USA, and its parent Born Free, are charitable organizations advocating for animal welfare and compassionate conservation, with the ultimate goal of ending human exploitation of animals for any reason.

In the interview, Devan outlines the history of the organization - it has a very Hollywood origin story! - and all of the twists and turns that brought her to it. 

Devan’s profile can be found on the Born Free USA website’s About Us page. She is an experienced primate caregiver and animal welfare specialist with a master’s degree in primate conservation from Oxford Brookes University.

We talk about some of her early experiences investigating the welfare of reptiles, and then about her master’s research on the welfare of coconut harvesting pig-tailed macaques in Thailand (published in the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science). 

As Campaigns Associate, Devan is involved in many of the programs at Born Free USA, for example on the primate pet trade and the issues surrounding the fur trade in the USA. 

For more about the primate pet trade in the USA, read Born Free USA's report (Public Danger, Private Pain: The Case Against the U.S. Primate Pet Trade) and watch a documentary on Life After the Pet Trade.

Devan also talks about how people can get and have gotten involved in animal protection. To find out more, check out Born Free USA's activists toolkit.

We also get a bit into the legislation of animal protection in the US, and later talk about the ethics of animals in captivity, particularly at places like zoos which have a bit of an embattled reputation these days over whether their efforts to educate the public and conserve wildlife outweigh their struggles at times to provide quality welfare for all of their animals.
 
Other topics we cover in the interview:

•  what does the role Campaigns Associate at an animal advocacy group look like?
• tracking social engagement for animal welfare and the Tiger King effect
• Japanese macaques living in Texas!
• compassionate conservation
• leopard geckos
• and more ...

Devan is clearly passionate about animals and their conservation and welfare, and exceptionally knowledgable about animal issues in the USA.

The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves.

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