Extinct Means Safe Forever

Does anyone else find it a bit depressing that everyone breaks out the party balloons after an animal gets taken off the Endangered Species list, when all it really means is that people can start the killing again? So it goes with the Gray Wolf, who now needs to start watching his back following an announcement that he’s no longer in imminent danger of extinction. Now that he’s off the list, he can once again be shot by ranchers who are protecting their flocks so they can kill them on their own time.

I’ve always thought that the “save endangered species” stuff was kind of a selfish notion at its core — as if we suddenly realized that the animals we’ve royally screwed over for generations actually enriched our lives just by being around, which apparently means that it’s time to panic for a few years and put them on a “safe list” until there are enough that we can start killing them again…

Anyway, the point is that the Gray Wolf is officially no longer on the Endangered Species List — but given the way we’ve treated these animals in the past and will now continue to treat them, I’m not sure I really feel like celebrating. Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments — I’d love to hear people’s opinions on this one.

Update: It looks like Environmental Graffiti had a similar mixed reaction to the news.