Cornell Veterinary Student Mounts Online Effort to Save Endangered Species

Gabby Wagner is a student at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. But she is on leave to promote her foundation which is seeking to raise funds to protect endangered species.

Using the pseudonym, Gabby Wild, she has launched an effort to raise awareness of the plight of endangered species through high fashion. Each month, the foundation’s website will feature a custom-designed outfit, inspired by one of 12 endangered species, including the Asian elephant, Bactrian camel, kakapo parrot, red panda, Sumatran tiger, and the Amur leopard. She is collecting donations online and is selling wildlife-themed fashion items designed specifically for this campaign. The 12 outfits will be auctioned at the close of the campaign in December. Her goal is to raise $10,000 each month that will be donated to organizations worldwide working to save endangered species.

Wagner says, “The campaign is about celebrating and preserving beauty — the artistic beauty of fashion innovation and the natural beauty of some of nature’s most incredible designs. We’re all drawn to beauty, but unless we can find new ways to make people see the treasures we’re losing all around us in nature, too many will very soon be gone forever.”

Wagner is a 2011 graduate of Cornell University where she majored in animal science and biological sciences.