Interview: Dr Alex Lees | Conservation vs Animal Rights Activism? (01:03:54)

Charlie Moores talks with  Dr Alex Lees, Senior Lecturer in Conservation Biology at Manchester Metropolitan University about perceived clashes or differences in opinion between conservationists and animal rights activists.  The conversation was triggered by a thoughtful and well-expressed Twitter thread in which Alex wrote that “there are several tropes of animal rights activism which clash with conservation goals", going on to list, for example, trophy hunting, invasive species, and zoos.  Charlie's response to that thread was that you could equally say that there were conservation tropes that clashed with animal rights goals...

There is of course more overlap between conservationists and animal advocates than those sentences might suggest, and in the following conversation Charlie and Alex discuss issues that both divide and unite them - including a shared passion for wildlife and a desire for more nuanced conversations to take place in what has become a rather fraught area of discussion.