I care about the life of animals more than one might think.
If it were up to me, we wouln't need to hunt animals in order to preserve their species.
If it were up to me, we would be able to let endangered animals breed in captivity,
living a peaceful life where they'll be protected from poaching and hunting. Hopefully
we'd have many such reserves and be able to maintain species numbers indefintely.

The problem with this is as nice as it sounds, it has been tried and it doesn't work.
The simple reason is that it costs a lot of money to protect these animals in this way.
Everything from transporting them to protecting them from poachers costs a whopping amount
of money on a continuous basis. People need to eat and pay rent, and to do that they need money.

People who work in preserving these animals or keeping them safe need to be paid and that
money has to come from somewhere. Donations only go so far, eventually they run out and then
the animals we're trying to protect fall victim to poaching or illness or are simply unable
to breed fast enough and die out naturally.

As sad and unfortunate as it is, the only way to protect these animals is to commodicise them.
Bison were hunted to extinction because there was a demand for them. Similarly there is a demand
for cows and we have saved them by farming them in great quantities. The cruel conditions they
are kept in on may farms is something that needs to be addressed for sure, but in the big picture
we've saved a species by farming them and making a business out of them.

As long as there is a demand, someone will try to supply. There is much demand out there for wild
game meat and hunting trophies. Whether or not it's right is not the question, we must simply
understand there is a demand. The few rhinos we have left will be poached to extinction to meet
this demand if nothing is done. But if we make this a legal business, farming rhinos and charging
people to go hunting for those in excess, we meet the demand for a profit, and that money can be
spent in buying more protection for those rhinos and farming them more efficiently, increasing
their numbers until they are no longer endangered.

I understand this still means rhinos will die in the process, but far less than the number
that are saved by it. If there was a better solution we would opt for it for sure, but what
other option is there?