Presentation by  Liv Baker, PhD

College of the Environment, Wesleyan University

Tuesday, February 24, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
At The deKoven House, 27 Washington Street, Middletown

Some wildlife inhabit and even thrive in our urban and suburban neighborhoods. We easily enjoy them, as long as they keep their distance from our gardens, shrubs, and enclosed places. When they come too close, our feelings change to the view that they are invading our space. When that happens, our wonder, affection, and empathy can quickly give way to annoyance, fear, and an impulse to kill them.

Can we adjust our perspective and become more compassionate and less violent in our approach to wildlife in our midst? Aren’t we the over-populated ones, after all? What if we (re)designed our communities – our buildings, our roads, our personal and communal behaviors – to include the needs and wants of the wildlife that already share our urban and suburban environments?

Liv Baker will challenge the current approach to wildlife management in two key ways: 1) by scrutinizing the science behind common policies and practices, and 2) by using concepts of animal welfare science to suggest a more compassionate, individual, and animal-based approach to mitigate wildlife-human conflicts.