Extinction - farm animals
One day, we may need toy models to remind us of what farm animals looked like.
It’s not just wild animals that are disappearing. Domesticated farm animals are also being lost according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
More than 20 per cent of the 7,600 breeds of farm animal and poultry breeds are at risk of extinction.
We’re losing around one breed a month.
The animals that developing countries rely on are fading away the fastest. Often these are the hardier breeds most suited to the poorer conditions that are being replaced by less suitable breeds from Europe and the US.
The UN report surveyed livestock in 170 countries and found that 90 per cent of cattle in industrialised nations come from just six tightly confined breeds.
Seventy percent of the remaining breeds, which have evolved to cope with harsher conditions over many years and are hardier, are being replaced by the limited variety of European animals.
global inventory
The world’s first global inventory of farm animals showing many breeds of African, Asian, and Latin American livestock at risk of extinction, The black-and-white Holstein-Friesian dairy cow is now found in 128 countries and in all regions of the world.
For example, in Uganda the farmers still walk their hardy Ankole cattle long distances to get water during drought (see ‘Droughts circle the world’). Farmers who swapped Ankole for Friesians and other imported breeds lost their entire herd. They may have better yields here, but don’t survive there.
save genes
Experts are calling for urgent conservation steps. “Valuable breeds are disappearing at an alarming rate,” said Carlos Seré, Director General of International Livestock Research Institute. “In many cases we will not even know the true value of an existing breed until it’s already gone. This is why we need to act now to conserve what’s left by putting them in genebanks.”
opinion
Not so much endangered species, as endangered breeds, it’s true. But sustainability relates to the local environment.
post script
Perhaps it is worth checking the small print of “Buy a cow” for Africa charities to make sure they are providing an animal that poorer people can actually use.
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