Rural Living??

   / Rural Living?? #1  

Ingo

Member
Joined
May 10, 2000
Messages
49
Location
Hillsborough, NC
Tractor
Cub 2186
What's up with people who want to live in the woods, but don't want to live with nature? My neighbor asked me the other day if I'd take care of their cats while they're gone. Basically fill the food bowl on the porch once a day. Mentioned that they always have coons and possums eating the food. So they started baiting a trash can with chicken, wait till the critters climb in and then shoot them. Now I don't have any problems with responsible hunting, or even with killing animals that are a real problem, but when you invite them in--that's stupidity. If you're going to have pets at least be responsible enough to feed them inside!! And then to shoot the animals that naturally live there!

Pardon the venting,
John
 
   / Rural Living?? #2  
John, I also have 11 acres that are mostly wooded one the edge of the city limits and about 1/4 mile from White river. I have a raggedy old barn where I park the Ford. I also have chicken pens built onto the side of the barn and a brooder for young chicks inside, I have a large plastic container with a lid that I keep the chick starter in. Either a possum or coon comes inside each night and takes the lid off and eats about 3 or 4 table spoons of the feed. I guess I need to train "it" to put the lid back on. My chicken pens are critter proof and have never been botherd. We
had a large King snake around the barn last year. my wife wanted me to kill it because it would snatch an egg every once in a while. I woulndn't do it because I never had any mice in the chicken feed. I figure thats a good trade. Two or three eggs a week for a mouse free barn.

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jim
 
   / Rural Living?? #3  
John -- You'll always find folks with no sense or a cruel streak. The flatlanders who live here in the summer and feed the deer, then leave them to starve in the winter are examples of the first group. Your neighbors fall into the second category. I have a few rifles, but have only had to shoot one predator who picked off Microsoft Cat and several chickens...and who wouldn't fall for the live catch trap so I could relocate the critter.

Good housekeeping and secure latches allow me and the critters to coexist. Can't imagine it any other way.

Pete

www.GatewayToVermont.com
 
   / Rural Living?? #4  
Ingo,

Justified venting!

It's not bad enough that nearly every species on earth is in far worse-than-ever condition because of humans. We also have to move into "their" little remaining turf(the countryside) and and then act like THEY are the problem, and kill them for simply trying to survive.

If such "varmints" are unwanted, they can be most-easily avoided by living in a nice human-packed city and dealing with the problems THAT SPECIES causes.

That some people will take the kids to the zoo and enjoy how "cute" the penned animals are ( quite likely buying peanuts or the like to FEED them), and then go home and begrudge the NATIVE animals we have displaced a few vegetables (or an egg), and ignore the "nature-study" opportunity right in their faces, is indicative of the incredible arrogance of our species.

To go a step beyond "protecting" our garden, pets, etc. with fences, LOCKABLE containers(garbage cans with hasp and lock, ) and so forth to KILLING the "wild" creatures (not for food, or to "protect-our-young", or to avoid being eaten ourselves, but for our "convenience"!) is plainly and simply a denial of the worth of any life other-than-our-own.

The habit of selective-condemnation is an interesting human trait, too.
"Let's put out some food, so birds will come! Look how many are here today, ... better buy more seed. Isn't "nature" beautiful!" vs. "There's a possum/raccoon ( who has "come" to the food we "put-out"), ...lets shoot the ugly thing!"

Will the REAL "superior-species" please stand up!

I have more-than-once been disgusted by the "if I have no-use for it, it has no right to live" mentality. This egotistical and stupid view makes me wonder what the earth and all its eco-systems would be like WITHOUT HUMANS. Do you think it would still be a marvelous life-system, wonderous in-its-own-right, ...or do you think it would be "pointless" without we precious humans to enjoy(destroy?) it? The choice of answer may indicate whether one thinks our rightful place is as a "part-of" creation-as-a-whole, or as the privileged "beneficiaries" for whose use/pleasure everything else exists.

Even if you buy the last (usually religiously-based) view (I don't), what sense does it make to destroy what is ostensibly "provided" for-your-benefit?

I trust that these comments will not be taken as opposition to hunting, or to really NECESSARY predator-control, ...I object to neither.

Speaking for myself and my partner, at our place, we can spare a little food, a few vegetables, and some space and time for our friends. And we consider the wildlife whose world WE share, and who add to our lives by simply being-here, to be our "friends". To be so petty as to "fight" them(much less KILL them!) over what amounts to a few "crumbs from our table", would leave us deservedly ashamed!

I'll finish with a pathetic observation; When I was a kid, butterflies were everywhere (not just in "butterfly houses" at some zoos) chasing/catching/watching them the way I and my friends did when we were kids, is something my grandchildren will NOT experience (and, sadly, won't even know they have missed). The reason there are so few where there once were so many? ... we've (as a culture) replaced the multi-specie "weeds" with OUR choice of flowers, and a nice uniform variety of closely-mown "lawn". And we're not-about to let those "ugly" worms and caterpillers eat any of them. We'll blindly do the "usual" thing, ... Kill them! What "use" are they?

Sometimes, looking back at what "we" have done in the past, it's difficult to be optimistic about what will be done in the future. I know I wouldn't trade the environment of even 50 years ago for what surrounds us today.

It didn't get this way because of our good "stewardship"!

Rant "off".

Larry
 
   / Rural Living?? #5  
VERY GOOD POINT.... Jim, thanks for the insight for those who need it...
 
   / Rural Living?? #6  
When we bought our home, the last owners left their cats, But that is another story. Anyway we put a cat door in the garage door so they could come in from the cold. We also fed them inside the garage. Last Saturday morning, I went out to check feed and water for the cats and two very large coons were running for the cat door. One made it out the door and the other clumbed up the door track and sat on top of the track looking down at me. I opened the other door and tried to urge the coon put the door. It was not easy, but the coon finally got down and out the door it went. Now I am wondering if I get a big dog or a dog that will grow big would keep the unwanted critters out of the garage, like an Alaska Malumute. Oh by the way I don't even own a gun, just a bb gun so shotting the coons didn't cross my mind, besides they are pretty. I just don't want to feed them in my garage.

Dan L
 
   / Rural Living?? #7  
Let alone feeding them in your garage, you do not want them in your garage! If for some reason they cannot get out the way they came in (knock something over that blocks the exit, confused, stupid,...), they will tear the place up. Have seen a couple examples where car tires were shredded. Worse, they can just as easily tear through drywall and be in the house looking for new food sources and challenges. Re. the dog: Wouldn't advise as the local coons will come back, and if a pup surprises and corners an adult coon it could end up hurt badly. Might check what scents would keep them away--I'm sure there's something.

Re. the neighbor attracting then killing them--should report him anonymously to your local conservation officer. At best I would consider it baiting and illegal hunting. At minimum I'm sure he'll get the message and stop. What an idiot.
 
   / Rural Living?? #8  
Dan -- Not sure where you live, but coons scare the heck out of me! Here in Vermont they've been hit with rabies. And if that wasn't enough of a concern, have you ever seen a coon fight!?! If my dogs ever tangled with a coon my money would be on the coon...and I have four dogs!

Pete

www.GatewayToVermont.com
 
   / Rural Living?? #9  
Talking about pet doors - growing up we also had one in the garage door, went out one evening to open it for dad, found a skunk eating the cat food. I was lucky, he kept on eating. After a week of his nightly visits, we thought he better be taken care of, we didn't and wouldn't have even consider relocating it. What would one do in a live trap?
 
   / Rural Living??
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Pete, We've had problems with rabies in N.C., too. Even had a case of a rabid beaver that tried to crawl into a boat a couple of yrs ago. It worries me enough to consider getting a gun, but haven't done it yet. However, if you take my neighbor's approach to the problem and shoot them just cause they might have rabies you'd have to exterminate all mammals to the point of extinction to completely eradicate the disease (including humans). Of course they're probably more at risk disposing of the carcasses than just leaving the coons alone.

Some years ago we lived in a trailer and had a coon and possum fight on the roof. Talk about a ruckus. Never did figure out who won. Apparently they were both still walking at the end (or one dragged the other off!)

As for dogs, I've got a beagle mix and Walker coonhound and so far they haven't tangled with anything. But they do stay in a fenced yard. I keep waiting for the day a critter gets in the fence with them. Only thing I've seen is a black snake and they were scared to death of it.

By the way, if you ever shoot an animal that might be rabid, do not shoot it in the head and do not use a shotgun. Apparently the virus is in the brain and you can expose yourself that way.

John
 
 
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