If You Want to Protect Wildlife, You Need to Read This
I’ve never once met someone who said wildlife shouldn’t be protected. I think it’s pretty much universally accepted that wildlife is in danger, special, and deserving of protection.
But what exactly is endangering wildlife?
Animal agriculture. Animal agriculture is the biggest threat to wildlife on this planet for two main reasons.
Keep reading for reason number two, I’m about 90% sure you’ve never heard of it before.
A gorgeous emu we stumbled upon in Boise, Idaho while walking our dogs.
Number one: Animal agriculture is the leading cause of the climate crisis.
Animal agriculture is the leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, water pollution, and habitat destruction.
At least 10,000 and potentially up to 100,000 wild species go extinct every year, mainly due to habitat loss and global warming, which is primarily caused by animal agriculture.
Scientists now say that we are in the middle of the sixth mass extinction. Because of human behavior - primarily animal agriculture.
Animal agriculture emits more greenhouse gasses than all transportation sectors combined. This leads to global warming, which in turn drives species extinction.
Animal agriculture is responsible for up to 91% of destruction of the Amazon Rainforest.
In the U.S. alone, livestock produces 116,000 lbs of waste per second, much of which ends up polluting water sources for wildlife and people alike.
Commercial fishing is responsible for 70% of plastic in the oceans, which kills wild species and drives extinction.
Due to overfishing, we could see fishless oceans by 2048.
Animal agriculture is decimating wildlife in the name of profit.
Number 2: Wildlife Services.
Wildlife Services is a government agency that almost no one has heard about.
It has an annual budget of over $200 million dollars. Its job is essentially to kill wild animals.
The lucky few farmed animals that don’t live in factory farms face a different problem: predation.
Wild predators can prey upon herds of farmed animals in open spaces. This predation causes a loss of profit for farmers, who are the main constituents of the USDA - the parent department of Wildlife Services.
So Wildlife Services kills predators to protect the financial interests of farmers raising animals.
This is particularly true for “free range” or “locally produced” meat and dairy products, since those animals are more vulnerable to predation by wildlife.
Every year, Wildlife Services kills over 2 million wild animals. Most notably, coyotes.
Wildlife Services does this through various means: from poison, to traps, to even shooting down packs of coyotes from helicopters.
A spokesman for Wildlife Services said their methods are “socially acceptable.”
It’s our job to prove her wrong.
When we buy food, we are voting with our dollars.
In making food choices, we must consider the systems, agencies, subsidies, and consequences behind those food choices.
If we buy animal products, particularly those labeled “free range” or “locally produced,” we are voting for a system that intentionally kills 2 million wild animals every year. We are saying it’s socially acceptable to systemically kill wildlife to produce food.
If we want to truly vote for conservation, there is only one vote to cast: vegan.
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