Problems From Having a Surplus of Animals (2024)

FAQs

Problems From Having a Surplus of Animals? ›

Having a surplus of animals is a problem for the following reasons. The surplus cannot survive. When there is a surplus, many animals will die of starvation, fighting, or other causes related to overpopulation. A surplus can cause wildlife to damage personal property.

Answer and Explanation: The main effect of overpopulation on animals is starvation. When there are too many animals, the available food per animal is less, leading to starvation. As a result, animals may wander in search of food and end up in unfamiliar and hostile environments.

Some get transferred to multiple zoos throughout their lives. But a large number of them go to private breeders, pet owners, circuses, roadside zoos, and canned hunting ranches.” Once the animals are sold to other owners, the people who purchase them can do what they please with the animals.

Wild animals have evolved over the course of millions of years as independent, free-living beings. They have needs, instincts and behaviors that are inseparably tied both to their appropriate habitat, and to a free-living state. It is inappropriate and inhumane to force a wild animal to live the captive life of a pet.

An increase in population will inevitably create pressures leading to more deforestation, decreased biodiversity, and spikes in pollution and emissions, which will exacerbate climate change.

Unfortunately, this overpopulation creates a ready supply of dogs and cats that end up in homes of people who are ill prepared for the responsibilities of pet ownership. With little or no investment in these animals, they are rarely spayed or neutered, licensed or otherwise controlled by their owners.

As species become more scarce, the demand increases on the black market, inflating the price, and the economic incentive for poaching only becomes greater. Unless appropriate laws are enacted and enforced other species will become extinct from overhunting.

As we lose animals and plants, we lose the natural caretakers of the earth. As animal extinction begins to worsen, it also begins to drastically affect our ecology. Alongside systems like the food chain breaking down, processes like biotic pollination (pollination carried out by animals such as bees) cease to carry on.

Babies are great crowd-pleasers, but when the babies grow up, they don't attract the same number of people, so zoos often sell them off in order to make room for younger animals. The unwanted adult animals are sometimes sold to “game” farms where hunters pay to kill them; some are killed for their meat and/or hides.

How do animals negatively affect the environment? ›

Feral animals can compete with native predators, hunt native prey to the point of extinction, and threaten the ecosystem's biodiversity. They can outcompete native species, reducing their populations.

Captive-Bred Animals Lack Survival Skills

Captive-bred animals generally lack the survival skills necessary to be released into the wild and often have developed such severe zoochosis—psychological trauma brought on by captivity—that they would not survive.

In captivity, wild animals are not able to perform their natural behaviors and many lash out in frustration from psychological and physical deprivation. This situation is dangerous for animals and humans alike.

Crowded animal populations often show a breakdown of normal social behavior, with increased aggression and violence, aberrant sexual activity, improper parental care, and abnormal states of activity, aggregation, or social withdrawal. A variety of stress- related diseases and mortality patterns may ensue.

Humans can impact animal and plant populations. When humans develop land for houses and buildings, they cut down trees and change animal and plant habitats. Some animals, like the raccoon and the skunk, can adapt, but other animals can't adapt and their populations are hurt.

Final answer: Overpopulation can harm a species by causing resource scarcity, increasing the risk of extinction, and disrupting the balance of the ecosystem.

Negative effects of human population growth include environmental strain, global warming, depletion of resources, and shortage of food and water.