The Controversy of Conservation: Can Commercial Breeding Save a Species?

Abstract. While animal rights groups always claim that the pet and exotic animal trade are the reasons so many species are threatened, endangered or nearly extinct, this article shares another side of the story. Human expansion, urban sprawl, development, deforestation and industrial/agricultural growth are by far the primary factors for the sixth great extinction we’re currently witnessing. Animals collected for food markets and traditional medicine (both nearly always outside of the U.S.) are other huge contributors to the decline of many species.