Human Overpopulation as an Animal Rights Issue

[stuntcat]

http://animalblawg.wordpress.com/2013/11/26/human-overpopulation-as-an-animal-rights-issue/

Generally, people are using resources more rapidly than they can be regenerated. According to the Animal Welfare Institute the affects of overconsumption of resources by humans is currently having adverse effects across the world. Aside from the obvious consequences overpopulation creates for humans, there is a very real and dangerous affect for animals.

What is the affect of overpopulation on animals?

There is no simple answer to this question. The demand created by humans exceeds the available resources, causing these resources to be depleted at a rate that rejuvenation cannot keep up with. An example of this can be seen through the increased demand for food due to overpopulation. For many people, this involves the consumption of meats. This causes an increase in food production, such as grains, that is then used to feed livestock, that is then consumed by humans. In order to meet the demand for these grains and livestock, more land is taken away from wildlife. Therefore, not only are more animals being consumed due to the population growth, more of their habitat is also taken away.

http://animalblawg.wordpress.com/2013/11/26/human-overpopulation-as-an-animal-rights-issue/

[hollysmom]

1. I prefer to think of it as a human survival issue.

[Eleanors38]

4. Since we are all animals, you are right. The kind of property use

Americans esp. have engaged in actually promotes the expansion of some animal pops., esp. deer. These animals are "creatures of the edge," so when a given area of countryside is given over to suburban sprawl, more edge is created around developments. The result: Less country, but more deer & other animals.

We may face animal pops. which can rapidly adapt to urban settings. Some animals seen within core urban areas of Austin, TX (800k): Fox, deer, feral hog, an occasional mt. Lion, even an exotic like Axis deer. The usual suspects include dillos, coons, opossum, etc.

[hollysmom]

6. I ahve been told I was cold becauswe I had no sympathy for people whose children or pets are

attacked by mountain lions or alligators because they moved to an outlying area. I feel bad for the kids and pets, jsut not the parrents that thought they could move to these areas and the animals should all be killed so they can live there.

[Eleanors38]

9. Their naivety is matched by the self-satisfying arrogance

of feeding deer which have taken up residence in many neighborhoods; some even think their Bambi Land enhances prop values. The queerest banality of real estate speculation.

I forgot to mention coyotes. Big ones, too.

[Nika]

2. Personally, this is why got involved in environmental activism.

I see this population bomb ending in disaster and a mass catastrophic die off of humans happening anyway, in spit all the foolish lack of will humanity has shown in facing this problem.

The Chinese have the right idea with their enforced birth limits. I think it would be an idea whose time has come if all nations in the world were to reduce their populations in concert.

Not that I expect this to happen voluntarily. But eventually it will happen in a much worse fashion unless humanity did finally make some hard, drastic decisions to act derisively to address the issue of extreme overpopulation.

[stuntcat]

10. I agree

Every word. Either we voluntarily slow population growth or we will be rapidly & painfully cut back to 2 or 3 billion. And of course the poorer people will suffer the most.

My main reason for not contributing to overpopulation is that I would kill myself before giving the rest of this century to MY child.

[Nika]

11. Recently I re-watched an old movie, Soylent Green. I was struck how

much the world had become like the one portrayed in that film. It made me sad to note that.

I too have not had children for much the same reason. I am glad I am not a child in this day and age. I am not interested in adding to the problem and bringing someone in the world who has at best a bleak future.

[NaturalHigh]

3. I personally believe that...

there will never be any viable solutions to any environmental issues until overpopulation is seriously addressed. If we don't address them nature will eventually.

[Eleanors38]

5. Some Euro countries & Japan seem to have leveled off.

Do you think the consequences of surging pops. in other countries will fall as heavily on countries with stable pops.? IOW, the "correcting" forces of famine and disease will visit themselves upon Europe & Japan as much as, say, Bangladesh?

[NaturalHigh]

7. I think it will eventually affect us all.

People in countries with growing populations will migrate to other countries. Birth rates won't necessarily always equal stable populations, IMO.

[Eleanors38]

8. True enough. A big change in this country's urban migration:

30, 40 yrs ago the "white flight" to the subs took jobs, spending and the tax base of cities with it. Now, in some sun belt cities like Austin, the poor are now fleeing the central parts because the pay is so low & rent so high they can't afford the core areas. But they have to deal with crappy public trans to commute, or use bikes. Quite a reversal.