Hey Nitin! I’m so glad you are investing in this!! Such an important topic and I’m grateful for your work to marry conservation and welfare. There are few people who could do that, so I’m glad you have made strides already.
You may be interested to know we have a campaign in DC to manage rat populations without the use of poisons DCratsolutions.com
I read about the interest in creating a new contraceptive via a convening of experts/funders and a prize. That sounds cool to target it toward island species to make it focused on conservation with a humane approach. Do you have a sense of how it can incorporate established R&D on contraceptives so as to not be duplicative?
I live in DC and so am super excited about your work here! Our ANC commissioner has mentioned working with DC Voters for Animals to manage rats in our neighborhood and I’ve tried to get our building involved. Please feel free to connect directly if it’s helpful: nitin.sekar@gmail.com
Regarding avoiding duplication: yes, our prize would be open to whoever can meet the criteria we establish around efficacy, palatability, welfare, sustainability, and cost, irrespective of whether the technology is new or not. So if an existing product can be shown to meet these criteria, then they would win. Of course, we are establishing criteria that we believe (i) are necessary for the tech to achieve conservation outcomes in the island setting, (ii) no existing product has been shown to achieve as of yet, and (iii) are technically attainable. So even if an existing product wins, we assume it would have to be improved in order to do so. This improvement—plus validation of effectiveness from a third party—should help us get closer to an applicable product that consumers believe in.
Hey Nitin! I’m so glad you are investing in this!! Such an important topic and I’m grateful for your work to marry conservation and welfare. There are few people who could do that, so I’m glad you have made strides already.
You may be interested to know we have a campaign in DC to manage rat populations without the use of poisons DCratsolutions.com
I read about the interest in creating a new contraceptive via a convening of experts/funders and a prize. That sounds cool to target it toward island species to make it focused on conservation with a humane approach. Do you have a sense of how it can incorporate established R&D on contraceptives so as to not be duplicative?
Hello!
I live in DC and so am super excited about your work here! Our ANC commissioner has mentioned working with DC Voters for Animals to manage rats in our neighborhood and I’ve tried to get our building involved. Please feel free to connect directly if it’s helpful: nitin.sekar@gmail.com
Regarding avoiding duplication: yes, our prize would be open to whoever can meet the criteria we establish around efficacy, palatability, welfare, sustainability, and cost, irrespective of whether the technology is new or not. So if an existing product can be shown to meet these criteria, then they would win. Of course, we are establishing criteria that we believe (i) are necessary for the tech to achieve conservation outcomes in the island setting, (ii) no existing product has been shown to achieve as of yet, and (iii) are technically attainable. So even if an existing product wins, we assume it would have to be improved in order to do so. This improvement—plus validation of effectiveness from a third party—should help us get closer to an applicable product that consumers believe in.