Are you serious? I have to agree with Alex that it was a shocking post, although even he was limiting his horizons to the direct benefit of mankind. Every species alive on this Earth plays its individual and vital role in the planet's ecosystem. If you extinguish one species, it can have detrimental effects on others. Carry that cycle on long enough in the right ways and it will soon enough affect the animals on whom we do depend on and thus affect us directly.
If anything, see it like this; all those "pointless" animals at least help to sustain a flicker of a sense of beauty that is left in this world as well as providing endless discovery and knowledge, along with the countless species which haven't even been discovered yet.




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Although I've never heard of chimps killing for fun, could you elaborate? I've heard of troops fighting other troops to the death but you could regard this as defence. I don't think (death caused by) territorial conflicts are unique to chimps anyway. Also I wouldn't generalise humans as killers for sport. It's undoubtedly a minority of our race that kill for any reason other than food. Additionally, there are definitely other species who kill without necessarily being for food or defence. The domestic cat is a prime example, which will kill birds and rodents to play with, with no intention of eating them. Similarly, killer whales toy with their prey before eating them (and I'm not sure if there are cases of them not eating it - wouldn't be surprised if there were).
