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By killing predators, we can save the lives of the many prey animals like wildebeests, zebras, and buffalos in the local area that would otherwise be killed in order to keep the animals at the top of the food chain alive. And there’s no reason for considering the lives of predators like lions to be more important than the lives of their prey.
And....more...advanced than that:
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And we're already starting to think along these lines. Owing to the advent of gene-editing techniques like CRISPR-Cas9, scientists are proposing that we edit the genes of wild animals on the fly. We would do so en masse by engaging in "gene drives" where preferential genes would be driven through wild populations of animals. The end result would be the emergence of "new" species more to our liking. Today, there are already proposals to reduce malarial mosquitoes using this very technique.
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Getting rid of predation isn't a matter of moralising. A python who kills a small human child isn't morally blameworthy. Nor is a lion who hunts and kills a terrified zebra. In both cases, the victim suffers horribly. But the predator lacks the empathetic and mind-reading skills needed to understand the implications of what s/he is doing. Some humans still display a similar deficit. From the perspective of the victim, the moral status or (lack of) guilty intent of a human or nonhuman predator is irrelevant. Either way, to stand by and watch the snake asphyxiate a child would be almost as morally abhorrent as to kill the child yourself. So why turn this principle on its head with beings of comparable sentience and sentience to human infants and toddlers? With power comes complicity. For better or worse, power over the lives of all sentient beings on the planet is now within our grasp.
We need to bio-engineer badgers!