Quote Originally Posted by chassamui View Post
Quote Originally Posted by thaimeme
Everything has a place.
Not all conservationists agree that the money spent on conserving pandas is well spent. Chris Packham has argued that the breeding of pandas in captivity is "pointless" because "there is not enough habitat left to sustain them".[65] Packham argues that the money spent on pandas would be better spent elsewhere,[65] and has said he would "eat the last panda if I could have all the money we have spent on panda conservation put back on the table for me to do more sensible things with,"[66] though he has apologized for upsetting people who like pandas.[67] He points out, "The panda is possibly one of the grossest wastes of conservation money in the last half century."[66]

The Panda has no place in the food chain. It is not a predator, nor is it required to sustain others. It's only value lies in its rarity. Once it's gone that value will also cease. It has a sedentary lifestyle and despite it's classification as a bear and a carnivore, its diet consists of 99% bamboo. Totally bloody pointless.

Exactly. Conservation efforts seem to have the Panda as their masthead, and they are indeed revered in rapacious cultures like China, whilst they happily buy up all the world's other endangered species as "medicines", ffs.
And then there is the '"finning" of the world's shark populations. Doh.

Maybe someone could run into a Panda's pen in some Chinese zoo and cut it's paws off, then throw it out of it's enclosure?