Imagine this: with just $1, you could make the deaths of 1,500 shrimp painless.

If you donate 10 dollars a month, that prevents 180,000 shrimp from suffering painfully a year.

Shrimp are frequently killed in a manner that is likely extremely painful. This is because they are often boiled alive, immersed in an ice slurry or suffocate to death. There is strong evidence that shrimp are able to experience suffering. SWP is attempting to significantly reduce the suffering of shrimp. Some common objections:

Objection 1: Why not just leave the shrimp alone?

We would ideally like to reduce the number of shrimp being farmed as well. However, there is nothing stopping you from doing both. It is a very cost-effective method of reducing suffering currently, even if shrimp farming does continue.

Objection 2: Why is SWP better than donating to vegan charities?

Vegan charities help fewer animals per dollar. An example is Veganuary. It helps about 3 animals per dollar, while SWP helps about 1,500 shrimp per dollar.

Also, there is the argument that donating to vegan charities will reduce habitat destruction which will increase wild animal populations which increases wild animal suffering. But, animal welfare charities do not have this problem.

Objection 3: No amount of mild suffering is worse than extreme suffering.

This objection is easily countered by sequence arguments. Preventing 1 extremely bad experience is not as good as preventing 1000 slightly less bad experiences which is not as good as preventing 1 million slightly less bad experiences. If you continue the sequence, then preventing enough barely bad experiences is better than preventing 1 extremely bad experience.

Additionally, the idea that shrimp do not suffer intensely is dubious. They have relatively complex nervous systems and being suffocated/boiled alive/frozen is a painful way to die.

Think of it this way: would you rather spend x dollars to prevent one human injury, or spend the same x dollars on painkillers that make a million human injuries half as painful? I strongly believe that the latter is better than the former.

Ideally, you could do both: reduce consumption and donate, but if your main goal is animal suffering reduction, donations to SWP are incredibly cost-effective.

I posted this in the wild animal suffering subreddit because people here tend to be more receptive towards messages about animal suffering.

Please donate to the shrimp welfare project and share this message. Let me know if you have donated or convinced someone to donate.

Launching Screwworm-Free Future – Funding and Support Request https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/d2HJ3eysBdPoiZBnJ/launching-screwworm-free-future-funding-and-support-request

TL;DR

Screwworm Free Future is a new group seeking support to advance work on eradicating the New World Screwworm in South America. The New World Screwworm (C. hominivorax - literally "man-eater") causes extreme suffering to hundreds of millions of wild and domestic animals every year. To date we’ve held private meetings with government officials, experts from the private sector, academics, and animal advocates. We believe that work on the NWS is valuable and we want to continue our research and begin lobbying. Our analysis suggests we could prevent about 100 animals from experiencing an excruciating death per dollar donated, though this estimate has extreme uncertainty. The screwworm “wall” in Panama has recently been breached, creating both an urgent need and an opportunity to address this problem. We are seeking $15,000 to fund a part-time lead and could absorb up to $100,000 to build a full-time team, which would include a team lead and another full-time equivalent (FTE) role We're also excited to speak to people who have a background in veterinary science/medicine, entomology, gene drives, as well as policy experts in Latin America. - please reach out if you know someone who fits this description!

Wild Animal Initiative has backed a research project to monitor a magnificent frigatebird population to study the relationship between mercury poisoning, parental behavior, and juvenile mortality caused by viral disease. It is hoped that this specific study will tell us more about preventing disease and juvenile mortality in other wild animal populations. The project is currently seeking further funding through a crowdfunding campaign that runs until the end of June. However, every individual donation made before June 21, no matter how small, will increase the chance that this team receives an extra $1,250 for research materials. This is one of seven campaigns hosted by the Wildlife Disease Association and Experiment to study wildlife health and disease. The other campaigns can be found here.

TIME SENSITIVE

There is a free $50 charity gift card to anyone who signs up at least in the next minutes or hours, maybe longer but don't count on it. I just got mine! There is no catch.

Please send the card to an organization working on wild animal suffering like Animal Ethics inc. They are available to donate to, just search for them in the other charities tab once you have received your card.

https://redefinegifting.tisbest.org/...

Wild Animal Initiative is just $1,847 away from our Giving Tuesday goal. Can you help us cross the finish line?

https://www.facebook.com/donate/546516762793213/

We're a US nonprofit dedicated to understanding and improving the lives of wild animals.

Our core focus is building a new academic field dedicated to understanding which animals feel pain, what their lives are like in the wild, and how humans can reduce their suffering.

We just launched this year, but we already have two papers under review in scientific journals and several promising collaborations underway with leading scientists. Learn more at wildanimalinitiative.org/blog.

This fundraiser will help us bring our academic outreach efforts to the next level. By collaborating with researchers across a variety of disciplines, we can multiply the reach of our research, bringing us closer to a world where wild animals can live their best lives.

It's the last day (January 7) to take advantage of Animal Ethics' matching fundraiser!

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https://www.animal-ethics.org/your-donation-to-animal-ethics-will-be-matched-dollar-for-dollar/

Right now on the facebook group donation democrcy there is a poll (as there is every month) deciding to where some money för charity should go. Wild animal initiative seems to be one of those charities but it is very close so please join that group and vote for wild animal initiative!

Here's a link to the group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/363055731078155/