The Endangered Species Act is a valuable tool for protecting the welfare of at risk populations, but, it can also be a bludgeon in the wrong hands. As we find more and more populations of sub-species and unique variants of a common breed stock I fear abuse of private property owner rights.

Yikes, as science improves it’s techniques of identifying the DNA of populations of all manner of creatures there will be some difficult choices that need to be made. Do we have the where-with-all to protect every new sub-species we find? My first impulse is to say no. But that is the pragmatist in me. I do not doubt we will shortly hear that global warming is threatening the breeding grounds of this new ray we can’t get along without.