01/17/07 Extinction part one

Extinction We're losing animals at a pretty fast rate and I didn't even know it. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back to tell you a little bit about those losses. I read an interesting article in the Western Livestock Reporter not so long ago. The article was about the loss of domesticated animal breeds and blamed the globalization of livestock markets as the main cause. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports about 20 percent of animal breed are at risk of extinction. FAO has about 7,600 breeds in its global database of farm animal genetic resources. One hundred and ninety of that 7,600 have become extinct in the last 15 years and 1,500 more are reported to be at risk of going the way of the dinosaurs. Almost 60 breeds of cattle, goats, pigs, horses and poultry are not here that were here just five years ago. Now, I'm sure these were the less productive and popular breeds and most of us have never heard of their names. What really bothers me about this trend is that this is the first article I've seen on the subject. Environmental groups always let everyone know if a wild animal or insect species is in jeopardy or even perceived jeopardy. Maybe domesticated animal species are too closely tied to humans and so don't rate very highly on a pseudo environmental alarmist cause list. But I'll tell you more about these domestic animals tomorrow and why they just might matter to some people. I'm Jeff Keane. Western Livestock Reporter 12/27/06