Do You Have An Opinion On Killing Predators?

[chickortreat]

Do what you please. But when you shoot and kill somebody with your hand gun stuffed in your night stand, I hope you have a GREAT criminal attorney. I too am a rural American who lives in the country. We have bear, wolves, fox, coyotes, even a mountain lion has moved into the area recently. And I will rely on the proper channels to handle emergencies, should they arrise. It truly scares me that so many citizens want to flash firearms at every little twig crack they hear in their back yard. Scary world we live in today.

I don't know what planet you are from, but here, if someone breaks into my home, it is they, NOT ME, who will need the criminal attorney. It is not a crime to defend one's home/family.

Funny!!! My local police department advised me to buy my first handgun for this reason. They told us that the response time could be hours around here on the weekend and that we needed to be able to protect ourselves. As far as predators go, we built our coop and run really secure and don't let our birds free range due to a ridiculous amount of predators around here. If one managed to get my birds, it would not hesitate on shooting it. Just yesterday we had to do away with a few groundhogs that have been digging holes all over our horse pasture and eating my vegetables from the garden. I am not gonna allow a horse to break its leg so the groundhogs can live. Hopefully the others will get the idea and move out haha. Until then, they are gonna be feed for the turkey buzzards.

I am grateful to hear that there are others out there who do not swallow the lie that the system exists to protect them.

 

[RaeRae2]

I don't know what planet you are from, but here, if someone breaks into my home, it is they, NOT ME, who will need the criminal attorney. It is not a crime to defend one's home/family.

I am grateful to hear that there are others out there who do not swallow the lie that the system exists to protect them.

I have used the "system" several times, and was extremely satisfied. In one particularly scary instance, a drunk was beating down my front door. He was screaming and kickiing in the door, punching it with his fist. I called 911 and then got in my car and drove down the road to wait. Though I lived in the country, they arrived in a timely enough fashion to arrest the guy. Turns out he was planning to confront his estranged girlfriend but he had the wrong house because he was so wasted.

If I had a gun, should I have pulled it on him and got into a gun fight on the front porch with a drunk guy intent on harming someone? Would that have made sense? Escalate the scene with gun fire? Should I have shot and killed him and then had to live with the grief for the rest of my life? Instead I let the police come, arrest the guy, put him in jail to sober up and then charge him properly with public intoxication and tresspassing.

For all those who like to speak out flashing firearms around to protect themselves, I am curious to know how many have ACTUALLY pulled a loaded gun on someone, pointed it in their face, and entered a stand off with them. Until you do that, you have ZERO idea what it might feel like.I don't know. You don't know. Would you be able to do it? Saying and doing are two entirely different things.

I watched a documentary once about military special forces personnel who are trained to kill, and when they actually point a loaded weapon at someone for the first time, often they panic, they freeze, or their human psyche completely circumvents what they are trained to do. And these are people who have spent months in specialized training to LEARN how to confront people, to protect, and to use deadly force if needed. These aren't your average citizens who bought a gun permit and took a 4 hour class.

These special forces men and women were saying it is a complete falacy for the average joe blow to think for even one second that they possess the mental fortitude it would take to ACTUALLY use a firearm to protect themsleves. Some do, yes, but 99% of the people freeze, or completely freak out and cannot do it, or worse, end up panicking and shooting innocent bystanders. Studies have been conducted measuring how trained people respond when confronted with the mass chaos of an intruder intent on doing harm. The studies are NOT favorable to average citizens adequate protecting themselves with firearms.

It's a romantic idea for someone to think they will protect their property and family with a loaded weapon, but it's quite another when rubber meets road.

BUT I digress. Back to chickens..... I would rather use a very secure run and chicken house and then babysit the birds when they're out in the yard, than to feel I have to run across the lawn with a loaded gun every time I hear a noise out by the barn yard. That just seems so incredibly stressful and disrupting to me. Lock the birds up in a secure, adequate enclosure that cannot be broken into and then rest easily in the house eating your dinner, watching your tv show, and and relaxing. To me, that makes FAR more sense. But that's just me. What everybody else wants to do is entirely their own decision, and you are absolutely free to it.

 

[RaeRae2]

I don't know what planet you are from, but here, if someone breaks into my home, it is they, NOT ME, who will need the criminal attorney. It is not a crime to defend one's home/family.

It depends on your state and your dwelling or castle doctrine laws. In my state there was such a case this spring. Teenage boy shot and killed by a homeowner. Teen left a party and was intoxicated, saw a police car and thought he'd hide on someone's front porch so he didn't get an underage drinking charge. Homeowner came out and shot the kid point blank and killed him. Under the new castle doctrine law, you are correct, the homeowner was not charged. But now that homeowner gets to live with the fact that he murdered a teenage kid who was just being a stupid teenager making a dumb decision after being at an underage drinking party. The teen did not intend anyone any harm. The homeowner COULD have locked his doors, called 911, or gone out the back door and left the property while waiting for police to arrive. Kid could have been arrested and charged, but instead he's dead.

And of course there's the Travon Marton case. Shot for tresspassing by a neighborhood vigalanti.

So when you get people owning weapons who CAN and WILL shoot if they feel threatened, you end up with dead people that didn't need to be dead. And in cases where people really ARE in danger, they might not shoot because they freeze or panic. It's an extremely flaws system.

So what starts out as a dumb kid being stupid and hiding on some guy's front porch, ends up in a death that ALL parties plus their families have to live with forever. Didn't have to be that way.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I am sorry guys, but I think we got off the chicken subject....
If its human, i for one will call the cops first!!!!!
Just sayin......

If its a critter and trying to kill my birds, unless its protected by law, its toast!

 

[Moochie]

Any creature bugging my birds = search and destroy unless it's protected by law or it's a cat. Live traps are for cats.
I have a snake problem right now and I carry long garden shears with me so if I see I can just chop away. I have seen a hawk fly around a couple times in the past but it didn't bother coming to our property, I know I cannot harm it but if I did see it too close to by birds I would run towards it, arms flailing, and yelling like a wild chimpanzee to scare it off. My chickens are protected from big predators but I will let my bantams free range in the garden so they eat the troublesome weeds/grass and bugs. I watch them at all times when they are free ranging and if I see anything that could be harm to them I will chop it up.. I know chopnese.
I personally do not care for that "the animals were here first" stuff.. I mean coyotes or snakes here may have been here before my family moved here, but we have evolved to be top of the food chain and the only predator to a human is another human. I love my chickens to death and I'm not gonna let some random snake just eat up their eggs or steal chicks from under my broodies or let a coyote kill and eat my turkeys. I got opposable thumbs and a brain to go with it and I'm gonna use what my momma gave me! Letting animals kill your livestock is just giving in to the predators. Might aswell let the raccoons in your house since the raccoons were there before the house was built!

 

[janinepeters]

I got opposable thumbs and a brain to go with it and I'm gonna use what my momma gave me! Letting animals kill your livestock is just giving in to the predators.

Why do so many people who favor lethal predator control try to imply that those of us who use nonlethal methods are just letting predators eat our chickens? Or that we keep our chickens confined in little cages? So sorry to disappoint you, but some of us use our brains and opposable thumbs to create a set up and management system that prevents conflict with predators, while at the same time, at least in many cases, providing chickens with room to roam and meaningful access to real forage. If you prefer to kill, you should continue to do so

But let's not pretend there's no other way.

 

[Moochie]

Why do so many people who favor lethal predator control try to imply that those of us who use nonlethal methods are just letting predators eat our chickens? Or that we keep our chickens confined in little cages? So sorry to disappoint you, but some of us use our brains and opposable thumbs to create a set up and management system that prevents conflict with predators, while at the same time, at least in many cases, providing chickens with room to roam and meaningful access to real forage. If you prefer to kill, you should continue to do so

But let's not pretend there's no other way.

I don't think that way. My chickens are confined also, have room to roam, can forage, and no predators can get to them. I used my opposable thumbs and brain to do that

But if something does enter my property and starts bugging my chickens and I feel is a threat to my chickens I will dispose of it. The OP said in his first post there are people who let wild animals kill their chickens if they get into their coops, like if the animal got far enough it should deserve to kill your chickens. If there are people who actually think like that in my opinion they are just giving in to the predators. I didn't mean my way is right all others is wrong and I didn't mean I think that people who use nonlethal methods are just letting predators eat their chickens. I was talking about what the OP said in his first post. You didn't disappoint me at all because I don't judge others blindly like that, if you prefer to use non lethal methods then that's perfectly fine.
OP's first post, I don't think it's right to let a predator kill your chickens, even if it did get into your coop dispose of it (whichever way you choose) and learn from your mistakes. (when I say "your" I don't mean the OP I mean whoever) Don't give the predator a free snack though! Dispose of it and learn from it.
I have a coachwhip snake eating my silkie's eggs, I know where it's getting in at and I'm going to leave the little hole open, I've already moved the silkies to another location and I'm going to lure the snake in the original area using eggs. I will also be placing sticky traps on both sides of the hole! So when the snake slinks through it will get caught, I chop it up, and the chickens get a free high protein snack

If I could capture it I would, or call someone to capture it and relocate it somewhere, but I won't bother with that since it's the fastest snake in the Mojave, there may be trained individuals who can catch it but since it's non venomous it just looks like free eats for the birds.

 

[J-Sanders]

Why do so many people who favor lethal predator control try to imply that those of us who use nonlethal methods are just letting predators eat our chickens? Or that we keep our chickens confined in little cages? So sorry to disappoint you, but some of us use our brains and opposable thumbs to create a set up and management system that prevents conflict with predators, while at the same time, at least in many cases, providing chickens with room to roam and meaningful access to real forage. If you prefer to kill, you should continue to do so

But let's not pretend there's no other way.

Oh, I don't know, it may be because you have folks like RaeRae furiously typing into the keyboard that anyone that owns a gun is going to one day go off on a killing spree or kill some kid hiding on the porch or even make statements about a case that are completely untrue and have been reported as untrue and the news org that showed, printed, and broadcast it has fired the people responsible for uttering the untruth. Yet, she/he cannot be bothered to stop and think rationally and do the research required to converse with a modicum of competence on the subject at hand. And this is the worst kind of thread drift.

We surely have people of different philosophies and political persuasions on this board and that fact makes it a great place for learning and sharing.
When people quit thinking rationally and start thinking emotionally you get this type of discourse. I would suggest, and it is only that and no more, that if you want people to do as you say then let it begin at home first. Or as the Preacher says, "Let him who is without sin, cast the first stone."

Jim

 

[janinepeters]

Oh, I don't know, it may be because you have folks like RaeRae furiously typing into the keyboard that anyone that owns a gun is going to one day go off on a killing spree

if you want people to do as you say then let it begin at home first

Funny, I read all of RaeRae's posts and did not interpret them as predicting killing sprees.

I have no desire to tell people what to do.

Thank you for your comments.

 

[J-Sanders]

Funny, I read all of RaeRae's posts and did not interpret them as predicting killing sprees.

I have no desire to tell people what to do.

Thank you for your comments.

That is exactly what I am talking about. You didn't see it because you and her are of the same mind about the subject.




Quote: edited to remove ad hominem attack
I did not say that you had a desire to tell anyone what to do. What I did say was if you wanted to know why people were "implying" that you should look to your own posts for direction to the answer.


Quote: See what I mean?

You're most welcome,

Jim