It depends how long I had to hold off. Realistically, I think capturing a few individuals to study from each species could probably be done in the course of wiping most out, so even though both operations would take a while, the gene-cataloging would not significantly slow down the killing (pipelining!)), so I would do it.
Ending animal suffering is more important to you than understanding the only known instance of life and evolution in the universe ?
Or would you consider holding off at least until the global genome project is complete ?
Yes.
It depends how long I had to hold off. Realistically, I think capturing a few individuals to study from each species could probably be done in the course of wiping most out, so even though both operations would take a while, the gene-cataloging would not significantly slow down the killing (pipelining!)), so I would do it.