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Gap 'encourages
children to kill butterflies'
By Peter Zimonjic
(Filed: 22/05/2005)
Gap clothes chain, best-known for selling
cargo pants and T-shirts to the nation's youth, has been
accused of encouraging children to slaughter Britain's
butterflies.
The company has put up posters and window
displays in Gap Kids stores, telling children how to
make nets used to catch butterflies for a "summer
adventure".
Conservationists fear that the campaign
will lead to a revival of the long-discouraged practice
of killing butterflies to display in collectors'
boxes.
A spokesman for Butterfly Conservation, a
Dorset-based charity, was appalled by the prospect of
thousands of net-wielding children charging across the
British countryside with murder in mind.
He said: "Butterflies are in danger
across the British Isles - even the most common species
are now under threat. We condemn anyone encouraging the
killing and collecting of butterflies.
"Even if you do not kill them, catching
butterflies with a net can harm them if you do not know
how to use a net properly. Butterflies are very delicate
and if we were to encourage people to catch them we
would ensure they were properly trained."
He said that a safer option "and one we
encourage" was to take photographs of butterflies with
digital cameras.
Nick Greatorex-Davies, a lepidopterist
with the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme - which records
British butterfly populations - agreed.
He said: "Thousands of kids running
around with nets could cause some harm. It is
inappropriate to encourage children to kill
butterflies.
''It would be much more sensible for them
to take pictures. The main problem is environmental
destruction but once people become collectors they can
put endangered species under threat which can often be
the last straw."
Displays in the windows of Gap Kids
feature child-sized mannequins waving butterfly nets,
with colourful fabric butterflies caught in them. A
poster behind each display reads: "Summer adventure. How
to make your own butterfly net."
A spokesman for Gap said that the
campaign, which includes lists of the materials needed
to craft a net, was not intended to encourage children
to catch butterflies, only to make the nets.
He said: "It is part of a summer campaign
aimed at encouraging children to use their
imaginations."
Other elements included urging children
to send messages in bottles, he added.
Gap has worked hard to cultivate its
politically correct, environmentally friendly image
around the globe by joining the US Environmental
Protection Agency's Climate Leaders program.
The San Francisco-based company brags on
its website that it saves energy and reduces greenhouse
gas emissions by recycling and using low-mercury
fluorescent lamps in its stores.
The website reads: "We understand the
importance of protecting the environment and preserving
it for future generations, and we're committed to
continually improving and expanding our environmental
practices."
Butterfly numbers have declined seriously
since the early 1900s. Five of Britain's 59 butterfly
species have become extinct and at least half the
remaining ones are under threat, according to Butterfly
Conservation.
The most endangered species is the High
Brown Fritillary - which has declined by
94 per cent since the 1950s. Even common
species are far less abundant, because their breeding
areas have been severely reduced.
Intensive farming and forestry have led
to the destruction of meadows, hedgerows and ancient
woodland - crucial habitats for butterflies and other
wildlife.
As butterfly populations have declined,
naturalists have adopted a voluntary code of conduct
that limits collectors to catching a maximum of four of
each species of butterflies - two male and two
female.
It also requires lepidopterists to keep
records of all insects captured and killed, and
restricts the number and locations from which they can
be taken.
Gap has 3,010 stores in the United
States, Britain, Canada, France and Japan, and also owns
Banana Republic and Old Navy stores.
Last year it had global sales of £8.9
billion. |
