We Can Save Endangered Species By…Eating Them?

On Friday’s 20/20‘s special “You Can’t Even Talk About It,” John Stossel presented arguments that initially sound ludicrous — let athletes take steroids, remove trade bans on endangered species, etc — but are (maybe?) logical.

While not all of Stossel’s ideas are so convincing (like how he thinks that pregnant women should not be protected by laws in the workplace), some of the other issues he touched upon made sense. In this clip, he presents the idea that in order to get animals off the endangered species lists, people should be allowed to own and farm them, that way poachers won’t kill wild animals to profit on them, because there will already be an established market for the goods made with these animal products. While this idea surely won’t sit well with many, it seems to be a somewhat valid way to protect the existence of these species. It’s also proven to be a successful approach to animal conservation, as this practice has vastly increased the number of bison in America, and rhinos in South Africa.