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Re: [RC] Rodent Dispatching and cruelty...... not a good comparison - Barbara McCrary

In years past, any farmer or rancher might kill anything that moved that wasn't his livestock.  I was transcribing my husband's grandfather's diaries to the computer.....1897 - 1933.  Numerous entries about shooting foxes, bobcats, hawks....no coyotes mentioned and I wonder if they came along somewhat later, as we have plenty of them now.  In those days, people needed to protect their chickens from predation, as those chickens meant THEIR food on the table.  Nowadays, we feel we just walk into a grocery store and food will always be there for us to buy. (We hope.)  I wouldn't kill a hawk or bobcat or coon, as 1) We used to keep our chickens in an enclosure that hawks, coons, possums and bobcats couldn't get into, 2) We put an electric fence (coon height) around our fruit trees and flowers (deer height) and that helps a lot.  We will shoot blue jays that absolutely decimate our raspberry patch or our apples and figs.  We will shoot coyotes that run a 2-month old calf down and kill it.  We lost 4 calves to coyotes last season.  That's a lot of income down the throat of a coyote.  It's great when they hunt gophers, but when they start in on calves, that's it...... 
I will shoot gophers that are eating the string beans.  But coyotes killing calves cause the most economic loss.  I'm not very sympathetic about them.
 
Barbara
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 6:01 PM
Subject: [RC] Rodent Dispatching and cruelty...... not a good comparison

It is very difficult to kill a possum.  Had to buy my first weapon, a 22 rifle, for that purpose.  The possum was fighting my dog for the dog food.  So just what is so cruel about defending one's property??????  I doubt that those chickens felt very nice being pulled apart.   I have lost a lot of chickens to raccooms and possums, not to mention coyotes.  Oh, yeah, the mice they don't eat much but can run up your arm when scooping for grain and also carry some nasty diseases.  When the damn things ate some horse tack, that meant war.  An old friend told me that rats like EX LAX.  We had rats in our office in Baghdad. He said they used to put it out yrs ago at a grainery where he worked.  Seems the EX LAX gives them diarrhea which makes them thirsty and dehydrated and they go outside looking for water and die.  Now it won't work during the rainy season and you have to have no water supply in the area.   Just some of my experiences.  Oh, the new replacements did not worry about the rats but when I left it was there problem.  The damn thing got on my desk and ate my jalapena cheese package.... which was a highly valued commodity.    Mary Ann

Replies
[RC] Rodent Dispatching and cruelty...... not a good comparison, Mary Ann Spencer