> > For this reason, I want to set up a tiger farm. I'm sure tiger meat would be popular enough that it would ensure the survival of the species. What could be better conservation than that?

Farming an endangered species for food was actually proposed here recently, by somebody or other, as a way of saving the kiwi (our native bird, which is endangered). It was reported in the news in the traditional "here's a stupid idea, let's make fun of it" reporting style.

Divorced from all context of reality, I don't think it's a bad idea in itself. I freely admit that all my problems over which animals=food are based on emotion. All else being equal, if kiwis and tigers were as common as cows and sheep, and if they were farmed for food, I would eat kiwis, and I would not eat tigers. This is for the completely irrational reason that kiwis look similar enough to big brown ugly chickens, and tigers are awe-inspiring and beautiful and I would feel like absolute scum.

However, all else is *not* equal. The gentleman proposing to save the kiwi by farming was overlooking the blatantly obvious. A lot of highly skilled people have desperately been trying to make this endangered species breed in captivity for decades now, and hatching out a kiwi egg STILL is front-page national news. If they can't flood the country with fluffy little kiwi chickies NOW, why on earth would they be suddenly able to do it just because the reason had changed?

The other factor which had been overlooked was found by a newspaper reporter in a 19th century pioneer's household-hints book. It told you how to cook a kiwi. Basically, it said that if you're ever hungry enough to eat a kiwi, the best way to do so is to pluck it, put it in a pot of boiling water along with a large rock, boil it for three days, then throw away the kiwi and try to eat the rock.

Brunnen-"if tigers could be domesticated, don't you think somebody would have done it by now?"G