Soppy?

[farmer jon]

we are troubled with flying rats on our allotments from the nearby golf course & also have a resident fox that actually causes very little damage. we wanted to drop 3-4 flying rats every evening at dusk with a high powered air rifle with telescopic sights for the fox to clean up by morning. the townie do-gooders got wind of this & threatened to go to the local council despite them complaining about all their brassicas & soft fruit getting eaten. just can't understand the reasoning of some people, it beggars belief !

[alan refail]

I think vets are obliged to treat wild animals free if someone finds an injured one and takes it in - just so nothing is left suffering because of cost.

I understand that the professional "obligation" is to relieve suffering. That will usually mean putting the creature down.

[Geoff]

Predator versus prey and vermin's right to life are two impossible debates with no right answer just the ability to polarise and inflame. Personally I don't think my neighbouring sheep farmers should have to contend with wolves as some some have it, an extreme example. I think it is best left.

[WestHamRon]

I wouldn't do anything WestHamRon . The fact that someone is filming it has nothing to do with what is happening which is an animal doing what it has to do. If there were no wildlife photographers, natural scientists etc. we would be as ignorant as we were at the beginning of the last century and the world would be a very different place. I'm sorry, but I don't see what this has to do with the original post.

The thread title is "Soppy?"
I simply couldn't stand there and film a bird dying for 5 minutes. I would have shooed away the Sparrowhawk and killed the Magpie instantly.
I'm interested as to how many other animals take so long to actually kill their prey. On TV Nature programmes (the closest i'm likely to get) it normallyseems to be over in a few seconds.
I think that I'm saying I appear to be soppy.

[vegpatchmum]

I simply couldn't stand there and film a bird dying for 5 minutes. I would have shooed away the Sparrowhawk and killed the Magpie instantly.
I'm interested as to how many other animals take so long to actually kill their prey. On TV Nature programmes (the closest i'm likely to get) it normallyseems to be over in a few seconds.
I think that I'm saying I appear to be soppy.

But then surely you are potentially causing harm to either the young of the Sparrowhawk or the parent bird itself? You have no way of knowing when the parent/adult bird and, therefore, any young last fed.

Watching things like Springwatch it is evident that it only takes one or two days without food to weaken an adult bird and start nestlings killing each other. It is also evident that the catch rate for these birds of prey is woeful in most cases.

Hard though it may be to stand and watch, I would argue that it is natures way and you have to weigh up the lives of the Hunter and any young dependent upon the adult as well and if you can't watch .... walk away.

VPM
x

[Johnboy]

Hi VPM,
I applaud your letter which expresses my thoughts to a "T"!
JB.