Species like lions and rhinos(both black and white) are now reclassified as farm animals in South Africa, losing any protection they received as wild species. The amendment to the AIA allows licensed breeders to manipulate wild species to create “genetically superior” individuals to benefit the farm animal production system. Lions are currently bred in captivity for the trophy hunting industry and to support the demand of body parts, like bones, used in fake medicinal practices. Rhinos have economic value for ranchers because of their horns which can, again, feed the demand of the fake medicine market.

Creating a species with superior genes is something we haven’t heard since Nazi Germany. But in this case, it’s code for domestication. Domesticating a wild species is not good news for that species. In fact, it’s worse than just letting it go extinct.

Let’s use cattle as our example. In terms of evolutionary success, cattle have done extremely well. Their population topped one billion, a pretty exclusive club for such a large animal. Sounds pretty good, right?

Nope. Cattle were domesticated from wild aurochs. And guess what happened to those wild aurochs? They went extinct thanks to hunting. Ok, well too bad for aurochs but at least we replaced them with an even more successful species. Except, life for cattle is pretty terrible.

While domestication benefitted the cattle population, it turned life for the individual into a nightmare. Being exploited for breeding, milking, and slaughter is not something any of us would ever want. If you had to choose between being a wild rhino or a milk cow, which life sounds better?

As well, there’s a reason why ranchers load their cattle with antibiotics, artificial selection has led to a species with poor disease resistance. Surely, South Africa remembers when Rinderpest swept through native African wildlife populations after coming from domesticated cattle. North America is currently dealing with an outbreak of Chronic Wasting Disease in wild ungulates thanks to its poor captive breeding programs.

South Africa has seven times more lions in captivity than in the wild. If a disease spreads from their captive programs, that could be the end of wild populations. Seven percent of the world’s rhinos live on one man’s farm in South Africa. Again, this could spell disaster for rhinos in the wild. The fate of vulnerable species are on the line solely to boost the economy while giving in to our insatiable need for trophies and fake medicine.