Predators sit on top of a fragile food-chain. If man destroys the predator, he destroys the environment. If the environment dies, how will man survive? Never in the history of the world have we come so close to self-annihilation. Global warming, declining wildlife, destruction of forests are all pointing to a cataclysmic collapse of the natural order.
The Illegal trade in wildlife is a $60 billion industry worldwide, second only to drugs and arms. Japan, USA and Europe are the largest markets. Half of the world's wildlife populations have been wiped out due to human encroachment, global warming and poaching. It costs $50 to have a tiger or leopard poached in the "protected" sanctuaries of India. A villager makes more money in one night from skinning and poaching than he would make in five years of farming. At this rate of slaughter the tiger and leopard will be extinct within the present decade.
