I'm with you, Flummery. We, the dominant species, having taken over or destroyed the habitat of just about every creature on the planet and confined even the largest to smallish areas promptly regard as a pest anything that doesn't fit with what we want.
That every species is a part of the food chain is not in dispute, but the food chain is about survival. So-called delicacies don't come into it.
If any creature needs its numbers controlling it is we humans - the worst parasite on the planet!

KK