Should we attempt to save endangered species of animals?

Paleontologists estimate that over 99.99 percent of all the species that have ever existed on this planet have become extinct. Most of these species disappeared long before we humans appeared on the scene.

We are wasting time and resources attempting to save endangered species. I do not condone hunting and fishing. But these species will die out anyway because they are losing viability in an ever-changing ecological equation. For one thing their habitats are shrinking.

Ironically the people who support efforts to save endangered species are often the ones most opposed to human "tamperings" with nature. But the attempt to save dying species is itself a meddling in the ways of nature.

I have another reservation. Many of the species on everyone's en­dangered list are predators: lions—tigers—leopards—panthers— wolves—perhaps hyenas and others. Has anybody taken a poll among gazelles and wildebeasts and zebras and all other prey of predators to learn how they feel about efforts to save their deadly enemies—the carnivores?

Has anybody consulted villagers in Africa and in India to learn how they feel about predators that terrorize and mangle and devour them and their cattle?

Why don't we try to change the eating habits of some carnivores? Pet dogs and cats have been weaned away from dead flesh and have thrived. Why not try the same thing with other animals? We have retrained the most ferocious and humorless predators to live among people and small animals without making a meal of anyone.

I realize that this would be a massive undertaking and in the end may change the menus of only a few of the large carnivores. Still this may prove a less difficult task than trying to save them.

What about the "balance of nature"?

Why not call it what it is—the balance of violence?

We should want to create a new balance—free of violence and terror—free of the survival imperative of the strong preying on the weak.

If animals tear one another to pieces to maintain some arbitrary "balance of nature" I say to hell with such a violent balance. Who says we need such a balance? Why not invest our genius to create a planet relatively free of predation and violence?

Date: 2015-02-28; view: 906