The Basic Differences Between Animal Welfare & Conservation

I'm new to animal conservation, I'll entirely admit, but one thing I have noticed is that not many people realize what the difference is between animal conservation and animal welfare activists.  When I tell people that I helped start an animal conservation club on campus, occasionally I get that look: "Oh, she doesn't eat meat.  I shouldn't talk about animals around her."  Wrong.  That isn't what animal conservation is.  Didn't know that? Well here are the issues that both animal welfare and animal conservation focus on.  By the way, I love meat.  Please give me steak.  Now. 

1.  Hunting

Animal Conservation: For!
Animal Welfare: Against!

Animal conservation is fine with hunting, as long as it is done in a sustainable fashion.  What does that mean?  Basically, animal conservationists don't want people to hunt animals into endangerment or extinction.  As long as there is a maintainable amount of the animal left after hunting, then go and hunt!

Ex. Shark Finning is a major issue that the documentary Sharkwater addresses.  Sharks are being hunted into extinction.  Conservationists want limits to be put on shark hunting so that the species as a whole will still continue to thrive.


2. Eating Meat


Animal Conservation: For! As long as it is sustainable.
Animal Welfare: Against! For the most part.

Conservationists recognize that humans are omnivores and need protein to survive.  Are we okay with you being a vegetarian or vegan?  Sure we are!  But we are still going to eat our meat.  Again, going with the same theme as above, we lobby you to eat sustainable meats.  Generally, farms (as long as they are not polluting in other forms that kill other animals drastically) are sustainable.  Go farms!

Ex. Deer are hunted for their meat.  If the lawful limits are upheld, then there will be more than enough deer next year again for hunting.  If they are over hunted each year, then eventually we will see them go into endangerment and extinction.  This is not what we want.  Currently, in the United States, the main animal that you need to make sure is being hunted/caught in sustainable fashion is fish.  While fish may not seem like a big deal to you... they provide support for a much larger and our most important ecosystem: the ocean.  

3. Animal Cruelty


Animal Conservation: Against!  But not the main goal.
Animal Welfare: Against!

While animal conservation certainly does not support animal cruelty, it isn't our battle to fight.  We leave that to animal welfare activists who have done a wonderful job saving animals from bad situations.  I'm letting animal cruelty cover a wide spectrum of issues like animal experimentation, etc.  While each animal conservationist has their own ideals for each of these, there isn't necessarily an overhead opinion.

I hope that I have cleared up some confusion on animal conservation and animal welfare.  I believe it is an important difference to establish as animal welfare honestly seems scary sometimes, while we want animal conservation to be something that people can easily get behind.

TL;DR version: Animal conservation equals sustainable hunting and eating; animal welfare is do not do anything at all to harm animals even slightly, no matter what.