Big 5 Part Of Farming Animals Now

Last year the South African Government pushed through an amendment that I hadn't known about until I read an article relating to it. The amendment had to do with wild animals and reclassifying them as farm animals. Much in the same way the Chinese amended their animal classifications recently changing dogs and cats from livestock to domestic animals.

The animals that changed status included The Cape Buffalo ,white and black rhino,cheetah,lions,zebras and a whole host of others. This allows farmers to breed these animals and if required can now through AIA permits which will allow them to play around with genetics modifying the species.

I can possibly understand the need for the Black rhino as it is being poached for it's horn and the numbers are desperately low. This would possibly save the species overall having farming stock and being able to breed them keeping their numbers up. I don't see the reason for all the other animals though as to what purpose would someone want to farm lions unless it was for some devious thing like hunting purposes.

I hate it when scientists play around with nature playing God as it creates more problems. Look at the mess we are in now as someone in a white coat was fiddling when they shouldn't have been. The eco system in the wild life parks is equally balanced and we don't need extra lions or zebras.

I was in Madikwe a while ago and they had to move around 8 lions to other parks as their lions were breeding too quickly for the reserve. This sets an unequal balance as the other animals can't breed at a normal rate as they are the prey.

I just find it strange that these things get passed through and you wonder who is benefiting from this change is legislation. I doubt it is the animals as there is always an ulterior motive behind these changes.

The legislation allows for artificial insemination,the collection of semen and harvesting of embryo's. These items can now be sold freely along with other genetic material.The NSPCA said that for a while there has been pressure to move the classification away from wildlife and fisheries to agriculture. Surely that would ring alarm bells as this surely can only be for hunting purposes. Many game farms have sprung up over the last decade and this is them trying to take it to another scale.

I just don't get it when you have endangered species now being threatened with genetically modified science. The one thing that is concerning is the young could be removed earlier than normal so she is ready to breed again having more young than she would have in nature under normal circumstances. This is not normal and farmers are playing with the future stock of the nature reserves.