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Budget_Pop9600 t1_j4w1qzq wrote

Reply to comment by Simple_Opossum in 4-year-old whale of one of the world's rarest species is "likely to die" after becoming heavily entangled, NOAA says - CBS News by Simple_Opossum

That doesnt fill their pockets though

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techleopard t1_j51ujaa wrote

Sadly... this is one of the reasons I actually do support well-funded zoos. People can hem and haw about "abuse" all they like, but putting a financial incentive on saving animals is how they get saved from extinction.

For example, for certain types of endangered exotic antelope, there are more individuals on ranches in Texas than there are in the wilds of Africa. People want to shoot these animals so badly that it's become ludicrously profitable to not only save them from extinction, but manage their genetics to prevent them from bottlenecking.

If the cheetah wasn't so hard to breed in captivity, the pet market would have completely reversed their current endangered status because they're probably the "safest" of the big cats and most trainable for hunting, racing, and sport.

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