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Every animal introduced into the pet industry is now flourishing beyond simple replacement numbers. Whether it is corals, reptiles, fish, small mammals, birds, hoof stock, all captive bred populations are flourishing. It is only those designated threatened and endangered that are systematically required to die off.
If species are to be protected it will be because the enormous resources of the private husbandry sector are encouraged to do what they do best, preserve and propogate.

Very true! That's why I want to see more chimpanzees as pets. Extinction problem solved. But it won't happen, for the reasons you state.

I think this is further evidence that leftism is a belief system that poisons the well for every other topic or societal concern it touches, even if those other topics are themselves perfectly valid.

What's frustrating to me is, so many conservatives have let themselves get suckered into the trap of assuming that it's these other topics or concerns that are inherently wrong-headed, when in fact it's the silly arguments & approaches that the leftists have used whenever they jump onto the bandwagon to fix some particular problem, that have poisoned the well & made the concern itself look silly.

Jennyp,
It is absolutely critical to point the finger at policies that destroy species. Current political thinking about nature is precisely the opposite of what is needed.
The very idea that government policies can protect nature from the private sector is pure fascist fanaticism. Such policies must be opposed. Talking with elected officials is the only way to achieve this. Bureaucrats are deaf to any change in their dominant attitudes.
Our representatives must be made to understand that legal opposition to human interaction with animals is not the business of government. It is obscene. It is bad for animals. It is bad for humans. It is bad policy.
I vigorously oppose the torture and abuse of animals. I also vigorously oppose government restricting access to animals.

That's why I want to see more chimpanzees as pets. Extinction problem solved. But it won't happen, for the reasons you state.

That and the fact that a cute baby chimp grows up to be a very strong and destructive adult chimp. (They're kinda like people in that regard)...