[Avodah] [Areivim] whoops, there's 4x times the amount of gorillas we thought!!!

[Harry Maryles]

--- On Tue, 8/5/08, Gershon Seif <gershonseif at yahoo.com> wrote:

 
>>>>>>>>  BTW, What is the Torah's take on protecting endangered species? Do we care about this at all?  <<<<<<<<<

 
 
I don't see any Halachic imperative here. If I'm wrong I'd like to know why. 
 
The way I see it – the survival of any species is up to nature. If the species can survive extant conditions - it will. IOW if conditions are favorable to reproduction then the species will conrinue to survive into the future. If not it will become extinct. 
 
To the extent that man has any part in the extinction of any species is irrelevant in my view. Man’s job is to perpetuate his own species. To that end we should do what's necessary to constantly improve our own chances for survival by imaking our conditions favorable to reproduction. If by doing that another species becomes extinct, that is simply nature taking its course.
 
Those who claim that we have some sort of moral imperative to make sure that other species survive because of some sort of ecological disaster or at least an imbalance in nature that would result, need to prove their case. In my view they have yet to do that convincingly. I should think that since animals that once existed in great numbers and are now extinct - proves such thinking to be nonsense.
 
That said, I don't think we shouldn't try to preserve an endangered species if possible, but not at the expense of man’s own welfare.
 
HM


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