Animals are natural resources that people have wasted all through ourhistory. Animals have been killed for their fur and feathers, for food, forsport, and simply because they were in the way. Thousands of kinds of animalshave disappeared from the earth forever. Hundreds more are on the danger listtoday. About 170 kinds in the United States alone are considered in danger.
Why should people care? Because we need animals, and because once they aregone, there will never be any more. Animals are more than just beautiful orinteresting. They are more than just a source of food. Every animal has itsplace in the balance of nature. Destroying one kind of animal can create manyproblems. For example, when farmers killed large numbers of hawks, the farmers'stores of corn and grain were destroyed by rats and mice. Why? Because hawks eatrats and mice, with no hawks to keep down their numbers, the rats and micemultiplied quickly.
Luckily, some people are working to help save the animals. Some groupsraise money to let people know about the problem. And they try to get thegovernments to pass laws protecting animals in danger. Quite a few countrieshave passed laws. These laws forbid the killing of any animal or plant on thedanger list. Slowly, the number of some animals in danger is growing.
动物是人通过我们的历史就浪费了所有的自然资源。动物被杀害他们的皮毛和羽毛，食品，体育，而且仅仅是因为他们在路上。成千上万种动物已经从地球上永远消失。数以百计的今天是濒危动物名单。约170种单独美国被认为是危险的。
为什么人们关心?因为我们需要动物，因为它们一旦消失，就永远不会了。动物不仅仅是漂亮或有趣。他们多的食物只是一个来源。每种动物都有其自然的平衡到位。毁灭某种动物会导致许多问题。例如，当农民杀死为数众多的鹰，玉米和谷物的农民店是由大鼠和小鼠的破坏。为什么呢?因为鹰吃鼠类，没有鹰控制它们的数量，鼠类乘快。
幸运的是，有些人正在努力帮助拯救这些动物。有些团体筹集资金，让人们了解这个问题。他们试图让政府通过保护濒危动物的法律。不少国家已经通过了法律。这些法律禁止的危险名单上的任何动物或植物的杀戮。慢慢地，一些濒危动物的数量正在增加。