Saving The Tasmanian Devil

One cartoon at a time. Warner Brothers has agreed to donate one dollar (Australian) from each DVD it sells in Australia to a fund to try to save the Tasmanian Devil from extinction.

HOBART, Australia - Warner Bros. will donate money from the sale of DVDs featuring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck to help efforts to save the Tasmanian Devil from extinction, an Australian official said Saturday.

The Looney Tunes character Taz — a whirling, growling rival to Bugs Bunny — is based on the Australian marsupial, which is being threatened by contagious cancer in its homeland, the island state of Tasmania.

State Tourism, Arts and Environment Minister Paula Wriedt said Warner Bros. had struck a deal with the government to donate one Australian dollar — the equivalent of 82 cents — for each sale from a new series of DVDs to be released in Australia featuring the company's cartoon characters.

Proceeds would be donated to a fund managed by the University of Tasmania to help the animals, Wriedt said in a statement.

"This partnership will go a long way to assist in raising funds, awareness and future opportunities to ensure the survival of the Tasmanian Devil," she said.

The rapid spread of a contagious cancer on Tasmania is very likely going to kill off the native population unless something is done to save them. This is a brilliant public relations move by Warner Brothers, incidentally, as well as a good thing to do to try to save the animals. More about the contagious "Devil Facial Tumor Disease" from Wikipedia. The disease appears to spread due to the animals own natures: they fight over carcasses, and transmit the disease via bites. Given that every single animal studied has a genetically identical chromosomal makeup, it appears likely the disease originated in a single individual and is not developed by each animal individually due to some external agent like a virus. Unfortunately, it a a very aggressive and highly contagious disease.