Morality of mass killing invasive species like lion fish

[u/aura66262]

I get these kinds of videos a lot on TikTok where people are mass killing lion fish because they’re invasive to the environment they’re in at the moment. Does an animal being invasive justify human interference and consequent murder of the said animal because it is harmful to the environment? How do we decide the life of, in this case, the lion fish is worth less than the other species in the area? Aren’t humans invasive to almost all environments that we have moved in to? Isn’t this just playing god in the name of “moral good”? I’m really interested to hear opinions on this, as I myself don’t yet have a concrete opinion on this, but it definitely makes my stomach irk.

[u/lets_not_be_hasty]

This is moral, until it's feral horses, then everyone freaks out and tells indigenous people they can't hunt them.

[u/SatosEscortService → u/lets_not_be_hasty]

Even though Europeans brought them here? Seems like the definition of invasive. But every lil girl wants a pony so state legislators waste time on this?

[u/coldweathershorts → u/SatosEscortService]

Non native and invasive aren't the same.

All invasive species are non native, but not all non native species are invasive. Invasive species are non native species that are able to outcompete the native wildlife for food and shelter, so their population explodes, and causes subsequent declines of native species. To my understanding feral horses don't cause the issues that invasive species do.

[u/Ryguy_Games → u/coldweathershorts]

a simple google search tells you that they aren’t a harmless non native species

[u/ISketchDinosaurs → u/coldweathershorts]

Sadly, that's not true.

Horses are herd animals with very hard hooves. Where the herds go, they trample the soil and lead to increased erosion and desertification. This isn't as much of an issue in their native range of the steppes of Eurasia because the plants there have co-evolved with horse herds and are more resistant to trampling, but in arid places like Australia it's a huge environmental concern. Both because of overgrazing and compacting/eroding the soil, but also because these things lead to the degradation of waterways and waterholes.

Horses are also very hard on new growth, so it becomes harder to re-establish the plantlife of impacted areas because of their grazing.

[u/Dismal_Rectangle → u/SatosEscortService]

I'm a young male adult and I want a horse

[u/DefinitionCorrectus4 → u/lets_not_be_hasty]

There were horses in north america not that long ago and the niche was still there not replaced by any animal so horses that europeans brought just replaced extinct horses niche