A few months ago, a fox killed a number of my laying hens then came back several days later and killed the rest of them. None were missing... just dead hens.
I wonder how many city people have seen the result of a Badger attack on a flock of sheep just after lambing? It's a sorry sight to see in the morning a field strewn with the carcasses of lambs with their intestines ripped out. Non missing...just dead.
I keep cats, not as pets, but as working animals. It's their natural instinct to hunt, Try telling them not to kill a rat or mole. Should I have been ashamed when I saw my she cat stalk a dove for some minutes before launching itself from it's vantage point on top of the hen run and taking the dove in mid flight. The cat has to eat. (yes, I do feed her)
On the day I moved into my home in the country, a Robin sang a welcome from a tree just opposite the side door. An hour later, the Robin lay dead by the doorstep and another, younger, fitter Robin sang the same song from the same tree.
I detest the use of Larson traps to ensnare Magpies, but I love to see the small garden birds flourish in the Summer. For all you Townies, Magpies are excellent hunters of small prey and they don't work alone! These wily birds will work in pairs to hunt down their next meal. Living outside a city, I am surrounded by the daily routine of survival. Overhead, buzzards and hawks compete with owls for their next meal. All Hunters.
On the other hand, i've tasted the difference between 'factory farmed meat' and meat sourced locally from a farmer who takes a pride in his livelihood. However you treat it, the animal in question has to die.
As a grower of vegetables, I want to deter garden pests from ruining my crop. After all, they're taking food from my mouth!
I still have vivid memories of working in an abattoir at Christmas and hearing the distressed sounds of thousands of caged birds ready for slaughter, or in the same abattoir witnessing the panic in a wagon load of pigs who had sensed their destiny. A number of them died before they got out of the wagon.
We, humans, are not naturally vegetarians, we are omnivores. That means we kill other animals to supliment our diet. Not all animals kill 'just for food'. We, humans, are animals.
The Goose I ate for Christmas dinner was 'taken from the sky' and not from a factory and the game pie I eat is exactly what it means.
The last fox shot by a local farmer may well have been, and probably was, the fox that killed my hens!
Sorry to go on for so long, but it's a big subject.
If you can't kill it, then don't eat it !!!

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