Fun Video, Serious Message

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, the romantic fools that we are at Defenders decided it would be a good time to put together another one of our popular seasonal videos for our supporters and friends to enjoy. So the “Find Your Mate” video, above, offers a lighthearted look at creating ideal matches between different personality types and appropriate species from our Wildlife Adoption Center.

We like to do these fun projects once in a while because, let’s face it—protecting threatened wildlife is serious business. So sharing a laugh with our extended community of wildlife advocates reminds us that we’re all in this fight together. But we never want to forget the essential message behind the laughter:

We need your support more than ever.

Why Adopt?

Your adoption helps us save real wildlife, like this gray wolf in Yellowstone. Photo courtesy of William C. Campbell/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The donation you make when you adopt one of the 27 imperiled species in our Wildlife Adoption Center helps us in our day-to-day efforts, working to protect our treasured wildlife and wild places. It helps us on the ground, where our regional experts work with other stakeholders—ranchers, developers, recreationists—to come up with creative solutions that will allow a healthy coexistence between people and wildlife. It helps us educate and mobilize hundreds of thousands of citizen activists to contact key legislators and regulators with their pro-conservation messages. And it helps us give a voice to wildlife in the courts when the laws designed to protect them are being violated.

But adoption is about more than simply making a financial donation. It’s a concrete way of acknowledging your contribution to the fight. When you look at your certificate of adoption for a specific animal, it reminds you of the personal investment you’ve made in the future of that species. The color photo and factsheet showcase the myriad wonders of wildlife and why each animal is so critical to a healthy ecosystem. The activity book lets you share these wonders with the children in your life, so they grow up appreciating the beauty and interconnectedness of our natural world.

Adopt an animal from the Defenders of Wildlife Adoption Center and help save something wild!

And oh those plushies. We admit it… they’re cute! So whether you’re giving one to someone else—friend, family member, colleague,  teacher—or keeping it for yourself (we’ve all got them on our desks!), it’s a tangible  reminder of how YOU made OUR successes possible!

So please enjoy our Valentine’s Day video for the fun of it and share it with all the other wildlife lovers in your life. Then head over to the Defenders of Wildlife Adoption Center to find your mate AND save something wild!

P.S. If you do adopt an animal, we’d love to hear about it. Please leave a comment below telling us what species you adopted and why. It’s Valentine’s Day—let’s share the love!