Quinto: Tigers Are Worth Saving
2 min read
Star Trek Beyond’s Zachary Quinto is now the face of the World Wildlife Fund’s #3890 Tigers fundraising campaign.
Quinto became interested in the topic after seeing Kate Brooks‘ The Last Animals film, which “documents the heroic work of conservationists, scientists, and activists fighting (and often defeating) tiger poachers.”
It’s estimated that less than four thousand wild tigers are left in the world, and they are in peril courtesy of both poachers and climate change.
#3890 Tigers will provide financial backing to rangers on the ground working to keep the tigers safe. “Often times, these are groups of locals who comes together and are trained as rangers and go into the fields to protect these animals against incredibly ruthless, violent poachers, at great risk to themselves and to their families,” said Quinto.
In addition to being killed, tigers are captured and bred for wealthy people who use them as status symbol pets. “I was really perplexed and saddened to learn that there were more captive tigers in the world than there are wild tigers,” said Quinto. “And when we talk about captivity, we’re not talking about sanctuaries or credited, zoologically supported institutions. Often we’re talking about private collections or people who are keeping animals in their own backyards or even potentially feeding the black market with the captive animals that they have. And that’s even in the United States.”
The goal of #3890 Tigers is to increase the tiger population to six thousand by 2022 (the Chinese Year of the Tiger).
More on #3890 Tigers can be found here.
About The Author
