'That's a bloodbath': How a federal program kills wildlife for private interests | Hacker News Reader

'That's a bloodbath': How a federal program kills wildlife for private interests

npr.org

21 pointsthunderbong5 comments

There can not exist symbiosis between docile domesticated animals and native wild predators. Articles that shame current control methods without providing alternatives aren't helping the cause. If predation of livestock is allowed in the absence of lethal management, you'll read an NPR article in a decade about "Tax payers fund feeding of wildlife" when ranchers get paid out for livestock that's killed.

This is presenting it as much more black and white than it really is.

There is definitely a middle ground somewhere between "kill off any native carnivores that could possibly come near a multi-thousand-acre ranch" and "just let them kill the whole herd lol".

The article briefly mentions non-lethal methods and that they are underfunded. I worked with a grad student who was doing research (supported by the USDA IIRC) on different dog breeds for use as guard dogs. Ironically, sometimes the guard dogs will kill a calf — they assume due to boredom and playing too rough.

As someone who lives in New York, I don't understand why Cormorants get so much hate from bass fishermen. There can't really be that much pressure from cormorants on the small mouth fisheries. Cormorants are beautiful birds and the idea that they are a pest is...pretty dumb.

Some animals unfortunately pose a threat to human life.

Where we live on the Vermont/New Hampshire state line, we've had a several hundred percent increase in problematic black bears over the last 3-4 years. Normally, black bears are "more afraid of us than we are of them", and they avoid human contact. But once they discover that human houses represent food sources, well, they are 250 pound predators.

We've had a number of serious incidents in the last decade. A couple of examples:

- Woman attacked in her own home, loses eye: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/18/black-bear-att...

- A bear ripped a hole into the exterior wall of a kitchen to gain entry. Sorry, I can't find the photo for this right now, but was similar to the exit hole in this article: https://www.chestertelegraph.org/2024/08/14/plenty-of-bear-s...

Right now, some of our friends are dealing with a black bear that has repeatedly loitered on their porch. They have toddlers, pets and farm animals. And that bear isn't showing much fear of humans at all, which is a serious warning sign.

Vermont has asked anyone who encounters an aggressive bear to report it to the game warderns. They have a process for evaluating the situation. But often, the only good answer is for the wardens to shoot the bear. When possible, people would prefer to leave this to the wardens than to shoot the bear themselves.

If you live in bear country, remember, "a fed bear is a dead bear." Do not leave food sources where bears can find them, and discover that houses are a food source. When this happens, it puts human safety at risk, and it all too often means the bear will need to be shot by a warden.

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