C for Cheetah

The cheetah runs a tightrope of distinction
A desperate narrow race against extinction
A single family once 'gainst odds survived
Though poor within its gene pool, yet it thrived
This cat, the fastest hunter on the plain,
Against the final death, it runs again.

The 'spotted one', five thousand years its span
As an exotic pet attached to man.
The only cat that can't retract its claw
It has no hyroid bone, so cannot roar.
This condition, not its vital stats,
Places it amongst the lesser cats.

I said, and I want to return to this,
It lives upon extinction's precipice.
'Endangered' in CITES Appendix 1
Threatened by land loss, food loss and by gun
It's up to us - if we choose to ignore,
There'll be no 'C for Cheetah' anymore!