Why Chickens Will Never Go Extinct

"Leaving property rights undefined is even more disastrous than imperfectly defining them. Wild animals are often hunted to extinction precisely because they do not belong to anyone. They can by fiat or by metaphor be said to belong to 'the people,' but unless it is feasible to apply force to exclude poachers, there is no property right in reality. It is precisely those things which belong to 'the people' which have historically been despoiled--wild creatures, the air, and waterways being notable examples. This goes to the heart of why property rights are socially important in the first place. Property rights means self-interested monitors. No owned creatures are in danger of extinction. No owned forests are in danger of being leveled. No one kills the goose that lays the golden eggs when it is his goose. Even chickens who lay ordinary eggs are in no danger of being killed before their replacements have been provided. No logging company is going to let its own forest become a mass of stumps, though it may do that on 'public' land."

--Thomas Sowell, Knowledge and Decisions