- Jan 1, 2011
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Quote:
Amen, sista! But, don't be so sure that some of these bad dog owners are providing ample food; perhaps many of these marauding dogs are under similar pressure as other predators. After all, if the irresponsible owners don't care enough to keep their dogs safe at home, I'm not sure I believe they care enough to feed them much, either.
Point taken.
One solution might be to put out dry dog food and see if that reduces predation... Or, you might just call all the players to the scene. Of course predator don't typically tolerate each other and that might be the most effective way of keeping them all wary of each other and not interested in bothering your chooks.
Another good reason I don't shoot to kill! Coyotes to me are the WORST. They killed my childhood dog, a full sized retriever, and I've never really gotten over that, but I've found an unlikely ally in our coyote problem.
Coyotes are territorial animals, and they're not dumb. We laid the law down with the alpha- every time we saw him, whether he was hunting or cutting through, a few rounds of paint and a loud noise (sometimes a battle charge too), even if there was no chance of hitting him. He learned where we consider our territory, and where we don't care about his presence, and that we will attack him when he crosses that line. He has enough things to eat leisurely in the woods that he isn't going to risk the pain and ire of entering hostile territory for a chicken, and those woodland creatures he eats are the skunks and possum and raccoons that I wouldn't like around anyways. As long as I'm scarier than he is hungry, we're both winning, and I doubt they'll be looking hard for food for quite some time.
I also think the argument "I have guns because it's my RIGHT to have them!" is a bit of a cop-out and hurts the image of gun owners a lot of times. Don't misconstrue my words, I may be unlikely to use a gun, but I fully support our right to own them. There's a difference between right and reason though, and I honestly don't think you got a gun just because it's not forbidden- I have the right to do a lot of things I choose not to do, like I have the right to pee my pants, but I have good reasons for not doing that. I bet you have good reasons why you DO choose to exercise this particular right- hunting, defense, hobby target shooting, whatever.
If we're going to convince anti-gun people that a gun is a useful tool we have to tell them it is, and why, not just get defensive and yell "CAUSE I CAN, THATS WHY!", or they'll never understand why they should reconsider their views. It's better and more effective to be pleasant and informative, an ambassador of your viewpoint, than to try and change someone's mind by telling them how wrong they are.
On that note, I don't like how this thread has seemingly shifted from a conversation on people's point of view to thinly veiled personal attacks from both sides trying to prove the other is somehow a bad person for having different opinions, so I am done commenting here. If you like guns, awesome! If you don't like guns, awesome! We all agree that we don't want our chickens eaten, and we're all doing the best we can to make sure they're safe in our own way, so let's be a little kinder.
Amen, sista! But, don't be so sure that some of these bad dog owners are providing ample food; perhaps many of these marauding dogs are under similar pressure as other predators. After all, if the irresponsible owners don't care enough to keep their dogs safe at home, I'm not sure I believe they care enough to feed them much, either.
Point taken.
One solution might be to put out dry dog food and see if that reduces predation... Or, you might just call all the players to the scene. Of course predator don't typically tolerate each other and that might be the most effective way of keeping them all wary of each other and not interested in bothering your chooks.
Another good reason I don't shoot to kill! Coyotes to me are the WORST. They killed my childhood dog, a full sized retriever, and I've never really gotten over that, but I've found an unlikely ally in our coyote problem.
Coyotes are territorial animals, and they're not dumb. We laid the law down with the alpha- every time we saw him, whether he was hunting or cutting through, a few rounds of paint and a loud noise (sometimes a battle charge too), even if there was no chance of hitting him. He learned where we consider our territory, and where we don't care about his presence, and that we will attack him when he crosses that line. He has enough things to eat leisurely in the woods that he isn't going to risk the pain and ire of entering hostile territory for a chicken, and those woodland creatures he eats are the skunks and possum and raccoons that I wouldn't like around anyways. As long as I'm scarier than he is hungry, we're both winning, and I doubt they'll be looking hard for food for quite some time.
I also think the argument "I have guns because it's my RIGHT to have them!" is a bit of a cop-out and hurts the image of gun owners a lot of times. Don't misconstrue my words, I may be unlikely to use a gun, but I fully support our right to own them. There's a difference between right and reason though, and I honestly don't think you got a gun just because it's not forbidden- I have the right to do a lot of things I choose not to do, like I have the right to pee my pants, but I have good reasons for not doing that. I bet you have good reasons why you DO choose to exercise this particular right- hunting, defense, hobby target shooting, whatever.
If we're going to convince anti-gun people that a gun is a useful tool we have to tell them it is, and why, not just get defensive and yell "CAUSE I CAN, THATS WHY!", or they'll never understand why they should reconsider their views. It's better and more effective to be pleasant and informative, an ambassador of your viewpoint, than to try and change someone's mind by telling them how wrong they are.
On that note, I don't like how this thread has seemingly shifted from a conversation on people's point of view to thinly veiled personal attacks from both sides trying to prove the other is somehow a bad person for having different opinions, so I am done commenting here. If you like guns, awesome! If you don't like guns, awesome! We all agree that we don't want our chickens eaten, and we're all doing the best we can to make sure they're safe in our own way, so let's be a little kinder.
