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Big Game: Can hunting endangered animals save the species?

personperson Don't believe everything you thinkThe liminal space Veteran
edited January 2012 in General Banter
From 60 minutes

Some exotic animal species that are endangered in Africa are thriving on ranches in Texas, where a limited number are hunted for a high price. Ranchers say they need the income to care for the rest of the herd. Animal rights activists want the hunting to end.

Watch the segment. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7396832n&tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox

The question that occurs for me is the value of maintaining a threatened species greater than the negative of raising an animal simply to be killed? I think the answer is yes. Anyone else have any thoughts on some aspect of this story?

Comments

  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited January 2012
    It's samsara all around. Animals and ecosystems out of wack. Their existence a commodity. People taking a life as a luxary pleasure. Still there is potential. Once they are gone they are gone. So maybe it is good?
  • ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
    It depends I would say on what impact that specific species being exstict would have on the rest of the eco system. We have rasied animals to be killed for thousands of years. The karma of the killing would come down to the people who condone the acitivity, the people who carry it out and so forth. I can't think straight at the moment to come to an answer personally, too many paradoxes
  • SpacelessSpaceless
    Anyone has breath has the right of living. Protect yourself by not harming others for a long term peaceful self. you may not see it but it never fails you even if in accomplice to support a call for “murdering“ ;) may all be showered with love.
  • seeker242seeker242 Zen Florida, USA Veteran
    edited January 2012


    The question that occurs for me is the value of maintaining a threatened species greater than the negative of raising an animal simply to be killed? I think the answer is yes. Anyone else have any thoughts on some aspect of this story?
    I don't think so because the money could easily come from somewhere else without having to kill anything. It's almost like selling slaves to raise money to combat slavery...

  • ZeroZero Veteran
    Its an indictment on the state of our society - you may live if it is economically viable for you to do so - all the way up and all the way down.

    Agree with @Jeffrey on commoditisation of life but I say let the animals go extinct - a lion on a ranch in texas waiting to be shot isn't a lion anymore - its just our best attempt at a lion... I'd rather remember them as they were than somehow fool myself into thinking that theyre 'saved'.

    Humanity should be ashamed of itself.
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran

    I don't think so because the money could easily come from somewhere else without having to kill anything.
    That's just it though, it didn't sound like the money could so easily come from somewhere else.
    Agree with @Jeffrey on commoditisation of life but I say let the animals go extinct - a lion on a ranch in texas waiting to be shot isn't a lion anymore - its just our best attempt at a lion... I'd rather remember them as they were than somehow fool myself into thinking that theyre 'saved'.
    This is a good point, my conclusion isn't very cut and dried. Does a unique species have some value above and beyond the individuals?
  • compassionate_warriorcompassionate_warrior Veteran
    Referring to the OP, isn't this what zoos are for, saving species? The more modern zoos don't cage animals anymore, and they certainly don't make them available for hunting!

    Wouldn't it be better to work with tribes and governments in the lions' natural habitat, to provide economic development as an alternative to poaching, to reign in urban sprawl that shrinks their range, and so forth? Of course, that's much more challenging than setting up a hunting preserve in Texas.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    my husband (who is, shall we say, more forthright and blunt than I) commented in this way:
    A Massai warrior, on barefoot, tracking a deer for food and survival, coming across a lion, is hunting and meeting animals on 'the same page'. It's an even contest, and one that has to be played out.
    Hunters - the elite wealthy and privileged sort, mind, paying high sums of money - so it's a luxury, not a necessity - sitting in a 4x4, equipped with high-velocity state-of-the-art weaponry, binoculars and vantage points - is no contest.

    Besides, (and he's continuing, not I) this is just one step away from releasing convicted, repeat offenders like rapists, murderers and paedophiles. Many more people in the USA believe these kinds of people deserve the death penalty.....
    Keep them in a state of good living, give them privileges like a good place to sleep, food, shelter, warmth (as already happens), and then - let the 'games' begin.....

    So what's it to be?

    A rare, endangered species, like the ones cited in the video - or so-called 'evil scum' so-called human 'animals' who according to many, don't deserve to live?
    Which of the two is more deserving of life?


    And don't for one instant believe that humanity could never sink so low....

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