This is what a few people have said about endangered species and why we should protect them.

“Well, I think breathing life into the Endangered Species Act, taking those wolves back into Yellowstone, restoring the salmon in the rivers of the Pacific Northwest.”             *Bruce Babbitt, former Governor of Arizona and U.S. Secretary of the Interior

“As a young boy, I was obsessed with endangered species and the extinct species that men killed off. Biology was the subject in school that I was incredibly passionate about.” *Leonardo DiCaprio, Academy Award winning actor and founder of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation

 “Steve worked tirelessly to promote conservation, wildlife, and the environment, and his work enabled the plight of endangered species to reach a whole new audience.”          *Terri Irwin, owner of the Australia Zoo, naturalist and wife of the late Steve Irwin

“What is a fish without a river? What is a bird without a tree to nest in? What is an Endangered Species Act without any enforcement mechanism to ensure their habitat is protected? It is nothing.”  *Jay Inslee, Governor of Washington State

“The snow leopard is absolutely magnificent. It represents really what endangered species are all about.”    *Jack Hanna, Director Emeritus of the Columbia Zoo, author, and host of Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild            

“We all have a responsibility to protect endangered species, both for their sake and for the sake of our own future generations.”    *Loretta Lynch, former U.S. Attorney General

“Living wild species are like a library of books still unread. Our heedless destruction of them is akin to burning that library without ever having read its books.”    *John Dingell, the longest serving U.S. member of Congress who helped lead the passage of the Endangered Species Act

“My work as a photographer is a] mission to document endangered species and landscapes in order to show a world worth saving.”    *Joel Sartore, photographer, author, speaker and founder of The Photo Ark

“There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.”  *Aldo Leopold, author, ecologist and scientist

“I want to help give these species a voice, because they cannot speak for themselves, and if they could speak they would cry out for help.”  *Susan Middleton, author and photographer of rare and endangered species

“If we human beings learn to see the intricacies that bind one part of a natural system to another and then to us, we will no longer argue about the importance of wilderness protection, or over the question of saving endangered species, or how human communities must base their economic futures – not on short-term exploitation – but on long-term, sustainable development.” *Gaylord Nelson, Former Senator & Governor of Wisconsin, Founder of Earth Day

“Endangered species are our friends.” *Yao Ming, Professional Basketball Player

“The real threat to whales is whaling, which has endangered many whale species.” *Dave Barry, Humor Columnist, Author

“Take the crocodile, for example, my favorite animal. There are 23 species. Seventeen of those species are rare or endangered. They’re on the way out, no matter what anyone does or says, you know.” *Steve Irwin, Wildlife Conservationist, TV Host

“The only way to save a rhinoceros is to save the environment in which it lives, because there’s a mutual dependency between it and millions of other species of both animals and plants.” *David Attenborough, Naturalist, BBC Broadcaster

“It’s extremely important that, as a writer, we give a voice to those who don’t have voices, including the other animals that we share the planet with and the places that are endangered or being lost.” – Alison Hawthorn Deming, American poet and former Agnese Nelms Haury Chair in Environment and Social Justice.

“Fortunately, nature is amazingly resilient: places we have destroyed, given time and help, can once again support life, and endangered species can be given a second chance. And there is a growing number of people, especially young people, who are aware of these problems and are fighting for the survival of our only home, planet Earth. We must all join that fight before it is too late.” – renowned English primatologist Jane Goodall on the threats of biodiversity.

“We don’t own the planet Earth, we belong to it. And we must share it with our wildlife.” – Steve Irwin, Australian wildlife expert and conservationist.

“The rapid loss of biodiversity that we are witnessing is about much more than nature. The collapse of ecosystems will threaten the wellbeing and livelihoods of everyone on the planet.” – Linda Krueger, Director of Biodiversity and Infrastructure Policy of Nature Conservancy.

“Animals are, like us, endangered species on an endangered planet, and we are the ones who are endangering them, it, and ourselves. They are innocent sufferers in a hell of our making.”  – Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, American author and outspoken vegan and animal rights activist.

“The animals of this world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites.” – Alice Walker, American novelist, poet, social activist, and the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

“Look closely at nature. Every species is a masterpiece, exquisitely adapted to the particular environment in which it has survived. Who are we to destroy or even diminish biodiversity? – Edward O. Wilson, the world renowned biologist and multiple Pulitzer Prize winner.

(Some of the above quotes are from an Earth.Org compilation.)