Question

Has there ever been a problem with the extinction of dogs, cats, or cattle? Why not?

Answer 1

Ans) Intro÷ This question is related to common resources and tragedy of commons.

Common resources are those which are non excludable but rivalrous in nature. That is, one cannot be prevented from using it and ones usage of it depletes its availability for others. Eg- fish in pond.

Now, since common resources are non excludable and rivalrous, people have more incentive to take as much as they can and have less incentive to maintain it, as the benefit of its maintenance will be shared among many people. This leads to overutilisation of common resources. This is known as tragedy of commons.

Due to this tragedy of commons, many wild species of plants and animals have become extinct and others are at verge of extinction, as they are freely found in forests.

One way to protect common resources is to assign property rights.

Now, the reason why elephants are at verge of extinction is because they are common resources and are found freely roaming in forests, so anyone can hunt them for their tusks. While animals like cats, dogs, cows etc are privately owned and live in ranchers or dog/cat houses. Since they are private goods, people have more incentive to maintain their population. It is because the benefit will go to the owner only. And hence we see that these animals do not face the threat of extinction.