Thanks for the clarification and encouragement ;)

First and foremost, I want to express my deep gratitude to @MHR, @MarcusAbramovitch  and @Aaron Bergman for kickstarting this discussion in the EA Forum. As mentioned in the post, this is currently SWP’s most cost-effective programme and one that we are very keen to continue to scale in the coming few years. To achieve that, we expect to rely on the support of our existing donors but also on that of the EA Community at large. 

Second, we couldn’t have asked for a better way to get the conversation started than for a third party to look at our programme in such depth and to put it to the community for consideration in an impartial way. 

Finally, I want it to be clear that my comments should not be interpreted as a negative reaction to the post but quite the opposite. It would have been nearly impossible to do a better job at portraying and evaluating our programme without further ‘insider intel’ which I hope to provide a bit of here. 

Thank you!

In the coming days, we might have some more feedback on the specific assumptions made in the post but I wanted to make some clarifications as early as possible:

FUNDING

• We are aiming to fundraise up to $1,000,000 for this programme to deploy stunners for the remainder of 2023 as well as 2024
  • 2-3 more electrical stunners in 2023 (high degree of certainty),
  • 12 more in 2024 (ambitious), and
  • An allowance to hire someone who will support with the logistics of physically getting all these stunners where they are supposed to go. This is surprisingly labour-intensive (negotiating contracts, arranging shipments, dealing with importing agencies, etc.). 
• Anyone interested in supporting this programme can donate through the Manifund project or our webpage. 
  • Should anyone be thinking about making a sizeable donation, please contact me directly at andres@shrimpwelfareproject.org
• As mentioned, we have signed agreements with MER Seafood and Seajoy - Cooke, both based in Honduras. Those stunners have already been acquired and at least partially paid for. The funds we are raising are aimed at funding the other 2-3 stunners in the pipeline for this year and another dozen for 2024. 

OVERALL PROGRAMME

• It cannot be highlighted enough that the ultimate goal of this project, even if highly cost-effective in its own right, is to catalyse industry-wide adoption (certification schemes, legislation, etc.) of a more humane slaughter method than the one currently utilised. By removing certain perceived barriers (or falsifying some excuses, depending on your views of the industry), we expect retailers and other buyers to be emboldened and be more assertive in demanding their shrimps to be humanely stunned pre-slaughter.
  • A positive indication of the tractability of this Theory of Change is the recent publication by Marks & Spencer (a UK retailer) of their Decapod Crustacean Welfare Policy. It has some commitments and timelines which seemed unthinkable when SWP was launched in 2021. This was made possible mainly by:
    • Compassionate individuals inside M&S who were willing to actively engage with animal welfare organisations,
    • Crustacean Compassion’s great work, including their industry benchmark, 
    • AND Shrimp Welfare Project’s novel approach in supporting the adoption of humane tech (as recognised in the text of M&S’s own welfare policies) which gave M&S greater confidence in drawing up their plans

COST-EFFECTIVENESS ESTIMATES

• The average and standard deviations of how many shrimps this programme would help per $, use only the percentages that the producers have committed to in order to receive their initial electrical stunner. However, in our discussions, it is clear that these producers (and more importantly their buyers) are seeing this as a pilot to eventually stun 100% (or close) of their shrimps. 
  • Assuming that SWP does not pay for any of the additional stunners required by those producers, this would increase the average from c.15,000 to c.27,500 (+54%) shrimps per $, making it significantly more cost-effective 

I'm really looking forward to hearing more about the TII and how other orgs might support or collaborate with you. 

James, thank you very much for writing this thoughtful post!  It presents the argument in simple but powerful ways. 

Edo and Amber, thanks a lot for writing this. I really enjoyed looking back at when my co-founder and I launched SWP! 

I'm happy to chat with anyone interested in discussing this process further. My email is andres@shrimpwelfareproject.org

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply so thoughtfully!  will definitely look into these resources. 

Ben, this is super helpful! Thank you very much for publishing. Any chance you have come across something related to managing/coping with work addiction? 

Haven (and FWI team), I wanted to publicly thank you for the great work you are doing, both directly and indirectly (including the continuous mentorship we at Shrimp Welfare Project kindly benefit from).  Keep up this level of transparency, it is invaluable for other EAA organizations working with aquatic animals in Asia and elsewhere. 

Thanks a lot!  Hearing that people out there care as much as us about this topic, really gives us a big energy boost.  

PS: we're really proud of our logo as well ;) Thanks to the Charity Entrepreneurship team for their help with it and to Jennifer from Fish Welfare Initiative (...she knows why)   

@Ramiro

A confession: I’ve been a vegan for more than 10 years now and frankly, even though I changed my diet precisely to avoid inflicting unnecessary suffering, I had never really given too much thought to the suffering of aquatic animals until 2-3 years ago. I get where you’re coming from. 

Thankfully, the conscious search of new ways to improve the world by the EA community and Charity Entrepreneurship has now made this a salient issue and placed their trust in Aaron and me to try to make a difference. We will work tirelessly to make your “trap-joke” stop working ;)