Breeding wild animals

Does raising wild animals that are in danger of extinction to provide the products required due to superstitions prevent the killing of animals in the wild? It turns out not

One of the methods to stop the disappearance/extinction of animals is by growing reproductive nuclei in closed and protected enclosures, with the intention of returning the animals to the wild when conditions exist that allow their safe existence in a natural environment. (This is how the wildlife works in Tivata and Carmel with a large degree of success).

Many zoos are turning from exhibiting animals in narrow cages into breeding and conservation centers for endangered species. Another reason for raising wild animals under habitat conditions is to "collect"/"harvest" biological products for which there is a demand, a demand for research, medicine, display and study purposes. However, the greatest demand for animals is due to folk traditions, tiger and leopard claws for cooking a potion for strengthening, eagle heads for seeing the future, lion's teeth for strength and bravery, pangolin skins for protection against wounds, rhinoceros horns for erection, and so on. The longer the list gets, the weirder it seems.

Already in the middle of the last century, entrepreneurs began to develop breeding farms that would satisfy the strange and unusual whims of consumers, starting with hornbill breeding farms, crocodile farms, peaceful chicken coops, buffalo herds and more, farms where wild animals are raised whose products or body parts are known to everyone who knows them.

Recently, some of the farms have become "green farms" from being part of breeding projects and returning animals to the wild, so are most crocodile farms where eggs are collected from the wild every year and in return each year some individuals are released/returned to the wild, so are (to a limited extent) deer breeding farms Water in China.

In China, bears are bred in order to "extract" various glandular fluids from them for the needs of folk medicine, mainly bile juices, recently it became clear that agile Chinese entrepreneurs began to breed tigers....despite the extensive activity of many (green) bodies, despite attempts to educate and study the demand for "products" Tigers are growing and growing, a demand that has brought the tiger population to the brink of extinction.

The number of tigers in the wild is estimated at about 3500 individuals and if there is no sharp turn by the end of the decade there will be no tigers in the wild, recently there is a feature of buying rhinos (live) by Chinese entrepreneurs...? (I need to explain that: the horn of the rhinoceros is made of the protein keratin which is also the main component of hair and claws, that's why in the past I suggested to anyone who needs a "strengthening"... to chew claws). When the danger of extinction of a species arises from the demand for its "products" there are those who claim that the danger is an excuse or justification for breeding it in captivity.

is that so ?

The question is divided into two main chapters, the first is the moral one, is it right to continue feeding traditions and beliefs in them: is there a higher value to animal parts than to a live animal? A higher value for a carcass than an animal?

The second chapter is the practical one... In recent years we have come to know that the opening of the market to trade in legal ivory did not stop the killing of elephants, on the contrary when there was "legal" ivory on the market, it was more difficult to separate the legal from the wild and the result was... more elephants were killed.

Over the years, tens of tons of tusks from elephants that died a natural death or those that were confiscated from hunters and traders were collected in warehouses. When African countries received permission to sell the tusks in their possession, the demand increased and the price rose, meaning that the supply of legal ivory did not lower prices and did not prevent the killing of elephants.

One of the most sought after and expensive products is rhinoceros horn powder, the price of which can reach 30 thousand dollars per kg, a price that is an impetus for hunting rhinos wherever they are and which has brought the rhinos to the brink of extinction. There are those who are trying to initiate "rhino farms" from which the requested horns will be supplied, there have also been attempts to saw off the horns from rhinos in the wild. But a hunter who sees a rhino shoots first and only then approaches... to a dead rhinoceros (even if hornless)

A spokeswoman for the group Care for the Wild International, says that "raising wild animals on farms and supplying their parts to the market will not stop the wild hunter, but on the contrary will increase the demand for the products and therefore the killing." When an important personality in Vietnam announced on the radio that "with the help of rhinoceros horn powder I was cured of cancer"... many of the listeners rushed to purchase the "cure". More than 200 rhinos have been killed since the beginning of the year in DRAP alone, this number can be doubled when adding the countries of southern and eastern Africa.

It turns out that the breeding farm has no moderating effect on the wildlife hunter, which brings us back to the first question, what is the moral right of a consumer of an unnecessary commodity. Destroy the source of the commodity? Despite the breeding of tigers and bears on farms in China, the amount of animals hunted by wild hunters has not decreased and their population continues to dwindle! And again, despite projects in the billions for water turtle poaching, there is no relief for populations in the wild, the process of dwindling (freshwater) turtle populations in the wild continues and increases.

According to the data: for every 3500 tigers left in the wild, there are three tigers in breeding farms (in China). Despite the ban (in China) on hunting and trading in tiger parts from the wild, the killing of tigers in the wild ... continues. According to "Traffic", in the last decade 1000 tigers were killed!

These days, representatives from Asia gathered in St. Petersburg (Russia) for an emergency conference in an attempt to produce a "road map" that will save the tigers from extinction, the conference under the auspices of Putin is a last "lifeline", since without protection and preservation activities the tigers will disappear within a decade.

Although an initiative to breed wild animals on farms to satisfy various and varied demands seems like a logical step on the way to saving species... the basis of "logic" is distorted. Because even though according to any scientific measure the products have no real value, the fact of selling them legally stimulates demand. It is better to educate the consumer audience and free them from vanities and superstitions.

For it has already been said that the time has come that instead of controlling the environment for the sake of the human population, there will be control of the human population for the sake of the environment.