Audubon’s Shearwater (Photo by Dominic Sherony)

Many people are involved in rescue and rehabilitation of wildlife, such as after the Gulf Oil Spill a few years ago, and the current wave of shearwater rescues on Florida beaches.  This work can feel good for there is nothing like seeing a bird take wing after you have spent hours of your time offering care and healing.  In some ways, we humans too are healed when we care for others, and our spirits rise with the birds as they soar away.  I know that the group with whom I work in Honduras deeply connects with the flock of 15 released scarlet macaws that were rescued from the illegal pet trade and now are flying free over their village.

Released Scarlet Macaw Flying Over Village (photo by Hector Reyes)

Releasing wildlife clearly connects to spirituality in a practice known as “merit release.”  Practiced by Buddhists largely in Asia, this practice is “believed to me the most powerful means of attaining spiritual merit.”  Because it is so popular, millions of birds and animals are released each year as part of a large commercial trade. In Hong Kong, for instance, one study found that 680,000 – 1,050,000 birds were released each year.

At first glance, this sounds wonderful: So many birds are getting the chance to live in the wild after being held in cages!  There are, however, problems.  The animals are usually captured from the wild, often housed and managed inadequately and inhumanely, and when released, are not able to survive.  Hunters too recapture many of the animals only to resell them again.  Trapping so many wild animals endangers their numbers in the wild and releasing them risks introducing disease from the captive birds to wild populations and also introducing non native species which can compete with native species.  A study released just this week studied released birds in Cambodia and found that 10% were infected with avian flu virus, and lower numbers of birds also had Chlamydophila psittaci and Mycobacterium genavense. All these can also infect humans.

Buddhist Releasing a Lobster for Merit

Because this practice poses such a potential risk to biodiversity and animal well being, the Religion and Conservation Biology Working Group of the Society of Conservation Biology recently released a policy statement regarding merit release.  As a member of this working group, I learned more than I contributed about this issue and what might be done to ease suffering and protect wildlife.  The statement calls on religious leaders and adherents to look for sustainable methods of release that also meet conservation goals.  We deliberated about the delicacy of this policy statement and how complex is the social terrain when an outside group seeks to change religious practices and organizations.  To mitigate any multicultural goofs, we are undertaking a process of dialog, education, invitation, collaboration, and partnership with religious leaders as opposed to dictating “what should be done.”

Instead we ask, “What could be done?”  I ask the same of myself, and of you.  What could be done about biodiversity in your own area, and about caring for wildlife at both the species and individual level?  Whatever you decide to do, it will gain you merit in the eyes of our transspecies communities and hopefully inspirit others to follow your example.