Although our issue wasn't government born it does in some ways mirror the OP.. We live rural residential, sandwiched between two elderly couples on our own acre. I raise Goats, Chickens and Feeder Pigs. The elderly couple on the East side of us are nature buffs, although he hunted for years he has since hung up his gun, deciding instead that he loves nature to much to shoot it, they had taken to buying bulk seeds and feeding every darn bird that came to their yard and the squirrel family that resided, well, that squirrel family with easy access to food and not much in the way of natural predators decided to procreate like crazy, within a few years we were over ran between our three properties. The folks on the west side of us started shooting them when they were tree'd by the dog because every time the dog killed and ate one she got violently sick, we started shooting them because they took to planting their free Pea-nuts in everything including my garden, often times digging up my vegetables. One day while chatting over the fence our neighbors on the east side commented on the suddenly low numbers of squirrels, I was honest ( I had told them a few times they were becoming an issue) and told them what was happening, they were very upset but since then the squirrel problem has not been an issue.
