ZLI and Wild Welfare Partner for Animal Welfare

NEW YORK, February 25, 2021 /3BL Media/ - The Zoological Lighting Institute™ (ZLI) announced today new partnership agreement with the pre-eminent, UK based charity Wild Welfare. 

Partnership initiatives center upon important relationships of light and animal welfare, specifically aimed at improving the conditions of animal care in wild animal facilities such as zoos, aquariums and wildlife centres. The partnership seeks to improve important work in community health, wildlife conservation and environmental sustainability, by prioritizing animal welfare. 

Expanding upon Wild Welfare’s four cornerstone areas of work, which include creating welfare partnerships that can promote long-term animal welfare improvements for wild animals in human care, conducting animal welfare training, assessments and research and advancing wild animal legislation worldwide, the Wild Welfare/ZLI partnership stresses data-based science, risk management, and advocates a growing ‘animal-welfare’ driven approach to environmental sustainability. 

Seeking to perpetually improve best practices, ZLI and Wild Welfare each recognize the important roles that managed care facilities such as accredited zoos and aquariums serve in caring for animals and ecosystems. Adopting the Five Domains Model of Animal Welfare, and stressing the need to explore positive outcomes according to biologically relevant terms, the collaboration anticipates future partnerships with managed care facilities globally to be ongoing and proactive. With enormous audiences and outreach potential, zoos and aquariums offer a unique opportunity to address community health, safety, and welfare issues related to artificial lighting (ALAN). Such issues span each of the Five Domains, directly impacting seemingly remote challenges of nutrition, health, environment, while impacting behavior and so hampering positive mental wellness of animals. Adopting a positive approach to animal welfare, in recognition both of the value of every life as well as the crucial support role that individual animals play for human community well-being, serves to initiate action on an overlooked but crucial area of climate change mitigation and sustainability. 

“Although the importance of natural light for biological and ecological function is widely accepted and understood within the scientific community”, stated ZLI Founder Dr. James Karl Fischer PhD, “the science hasn’t been acted upon adequately. “This means that animals, whether in a zoo setting or in the wild, are subjected to conditions that reduce or deny their opportunity to live and live to the fullest, in the manners in which they evolved. Essentially, the restrictions that artificial light imposes on animals need to be accounted for. This means scientifically monitoring light regularly, and including such data in decisions related to care, conservation and development. “We are thrilled to partner with Wild Welfare, a seminal and global leader in managed care wild animal welfare initiatives, as care for animals comes first in deciding how to use the facts that science presents for the benefit of all.” 

The ZLI Wild Welfare partnership aims to raise awareness, understanding, funding, and action regarding the importance of light-based animal welfare monitoring and research in managed care facilities. For more information regarding partnership opportunities with Wild Welfare or ZLI, or to initiate, sponsor, or support photobiological research and animal welfare monitoring at your local zoo, please contact either ZLI or Wild Welfare today. 

About The Zoological Lighting Institute: 

A unique charitable 501 c(3) with a mission to ‘Support the Sciences of Light and Life through the Arts for Animal Welfare and Wildlife Conservation,’  The Zoological Lighting Institute embraces the concept of ‘PhotoDiversity,’ referring to the importance that the diversity of natural light holds for living things, as well as the importance of cultural, social and human diversity has for science and its application. With an international Board of Directors overseeing four departments, including Film & Media, Education, Sustainable Design and the PhotoSciences, The Zoological Lighting Institute is breaking new terrain in the application of science to address the under appreciated realm of light and life. Current Campaigns include Beached, Bearanoia, Insect Apocalypse, Otohime’s Time, Precious Light and Save a Billion Birds!. Please visit www.zoolighting.org  or zli.org for more information on Sponsorships, Donor Advisory Fund (DAF) Giving Opportunities and Matching Contribution Programs.

About Wild Welfare

About Wild Welfare For more information or interview requests please contact Wild Welfare on communications@wildwelfare.org. Wild Welfare is a global organisation committed to improving animal welfare for captive wild animals. By uniting the world’s leading zoos, zoo associations and animal welfare organisations, we build trusting partnerships that help provide long-term solutions to critical wild animal welfare issues.

Our vision is to end the suffering of captive wild animals around the world and ensure full and sustainable protection is given to all animals in human care. Find out more at wildwelfare.org. Registered charity in England and Wales No.1165941.

 Join our work by making a donation at https://wildwelfare.org/get-involved-make-a-donation/.