Hmm... Seemed balanced to me.








All those statements sound reasonable and accurate to me.

In my experience here in the Ozarks when city folks move here some do get freaked out when they see wildlife come into their backyards. Locals don't. That's why there are still coyotes, bobcats, black bears, and who knows what else, running around here. We don't want to exterminate them, but we know we must control their populations.

Coyotes are a problem here right now. Most likely the coyotes had an above normal reproduction cycle the past couple years here. I know for certain there are more than any of the past dozen years running around here right now (I hear them every night) and it's a fact that more domestic pets and small livestock have been taken by them here, this year, than in recent years past.


This year my neighbors close by and I have lost at least a half dozen small dogs, dozens of domestic cats, and lots of chickens and other fowl. Coyotes and bobcats are what got them. We have to do something because things will get ugly if we don't.

For example, the outdoor cats are not just "Pets". They control snakes, rats, mice, and other small critters. Chickens control ticks, chiggers, mice, snakes, and other pests. Many of the snakes are venomous, the ticks can cause lyme disease. Other pests eat produce.

So, here are our choices:

• Let coyotes feed on our pets and livestock.
  
  
• Move to the City.
  
  
• Thin out the neighbors.
  
  
• Thin out the coyotes.

They're all crappy choices, but the latter is the only one that's going to happen.

Now, if one lives in a metro area where coyotes are not a problem for them, than they don't have to decide which of these options to choose. And they can help alleviate the problems rural folks have with coyotes by staying in the city. But I don't think it gives one a high horse to sit on.

Anyone who eats eggs, chicken, beef, pork, or veggies and fruit of most every kind, and is not producing it all themselves, is better off letting rural folks figure out how to deal with these issues.

If they think they know a better way, show us. We're all waiting for them.

Here, where I live, there are families that have lived here for many generations. They know what it was like when wild beasts were on the top of the food chain here. It sucked.

Here's an account from when things were still wild here that took place less than a mile from where I live: SAD ACCOUNT OF A LOST CHILD

And another.

And a whole bunch more..

The real truth is, most people have forgot what "Wilderness" really meant here just 200 years ago. Read the "Journals of Lewis and Clark". Read what they said about Grizzly Bears here in Missouri.

Personally, I'm thankful for how it is now.