Explain the statement: Wild animals like whales or spruce grouse have become increasingly scarce and valuable

Question

Explain the statement: Wild animals like whales or spruce grouse have become increasingly scarce and valuable resources because they have been treated in the past as if they were free and unlimited in supply. Why aren’t domestic resources like cows and chickens scarce?

Answer 1

this question is to do with an economic concept called property rights. cows and chickens do not get scarce because property rights for them are defined. farmers need cows and chickens for eggs and milk. when a farmer buys chickens or cows, they look after them because they do not want to waste their investment. they want the chickens to keep giving eggs and to let some chicks hatch so that more hens are there to replace the ones that die or get sent to the meat factory.
with whales and spruce grouse, there are no property rights- no one owns them so no one feels the need to look after them. if you whale-hunt, you don't own a patch of sea. you just go out and illegally hunt whales. if you owned a patch of sea then it'd be in your interest to make sure you didn't kill all of them because you'd want that there should always be some whales in the sea to support you in the future. when there are no property rights, everyone is in a mad rush to grab resources and they become scarce. when there are property rights, it becomes in people's interest to look after their assets.

Answer 2

Increasingly scarce means that they are nearing extinction and therefore, their value is at a higher level due to the fact that their are not many of them around. That value does not mean the value of slaughtering those that are left but rather their value of keeping them alive to avoid extinction. Most likely they already have a 'do not touch, capture, kill' ect. law strapped to their species. That means anyone that harms any of them or puts them into captivity without the DNR's approval can be fined and imprisoned. The DNR decides which animals, plants, etc. fall under the protection catagories.

Answer 3

cows and chickens are easier to raise for food and taste better than those exotic creatures.