Quote:
Originally Posted by ThomasHicks
Endangered species regulations tend to be ineffective for preserving their populations in the wild and extremely harmful for preserving their populations in captivity.
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I have to challenge you on this one.
For one, the Endangered Species Act of the United States is a fairly unique piece of legislation and should not (cannot) be compared to international endangered species legislation because international 'legislation' is all talk and very little bite. Outside of customs, it's virtually impossible to enforce any of those laws internationally.
Internally, the Endangered Species Act has done a lot of good. It forces the U.S. Government to take action (for better or for worse) for those species listed. That means that all "take", which includes hunting, illegal collecting, and even habitat destruction is highly regulated. This is not to say that the Feds are the most effective agency for dealing with endangered species management (this is currently a subject of great debate within the wildlife profession), but at the very least we have a legal course of action in place for those species.
Extinct in the wild means that the animal is no longer filling its ecological role. Survival in captivity means that we have failed. The U.S. Endangered Species Act is meant to prevent that. Granted, with critically endangered species some captive breeding is probably necessary, but by no means should we look down on endangered species legislation simply because it ties our hands to own these animals in private collections.
Personally, I have a LOT of problems with owning endangered species. It encourages illegal trade of those organisms and increases the risk of extinction, not ameliorate it. When you see an [eastern] indigo snake for sale for over $1000, how many people can look beyond the dollar signs of that snake that just so happens to crawl through their backyard? No harm done if you just take one animal from the wild, right? It's that kind of thinking that undoes your argument, and in second and third world countries where there is real starvation, you simply can't instill wildlife conservation values in those who are desperate to survive. We have become spoiled in the United States because we have relatively effective laws and law enforcement in place that we often don't see the fruits of our own labors and restraint. Survival in captivity isn't survival at all.