by L. Neil Smith

About the author: L. Neil Smith is the publisher of the Libertarian Enterprise, an on-line magazine that advocates free-market enterprise and a limited role for government.

Recently I watched an episode of X-Files in which innocent zoo animals were being abducted—apparently by benign, superior UFOsies (the ones who mutilate cattle and stick needles in women’s bellies)—to save them from a despicable mankind responsible for the erasure of thousands of species every year.

Or every week, I forget which.

Iwas reminded of a debate I’d found myself involved in about sea turtles; I’d suggested that laws prohibiting international trade in certain animal products be repealed so the turtles might be privately farmed and thereby kept from extinction. After all, who ever heard of chickens being an...