flintlocke;
Good morning to you sir, I hope you're getting the weather you all need - snow pack or not as it were - and that all in your world are well.

It surprises me not one bit that large predators get dealt with by individuals whose livelihood depend upon agricultural production to survive. It's pretty much ever been thus and I suspect ever will be, you know?

What surprises me always is that the carcasses get found.

For example of the local conditions here in southern BC, a mulie doe succumbed to either a vehicle hit or some disease in our yard a couple years back.

It was late winter or early spring as I recall but no snow and I found her as I'd returned from work and saw a big Bald Eagle in the Ponderosa by our compost bin/garden area which is unusual enough for me to check it out.

Anyways I found the dead doe and she had her eyes pecked out, some pecking on the hind quarter and was swelled up like a basket ball. Because of the proximity to our house and the terrain we live on, moving the doe wasn't practical, so I slid a knife up her spine and peeled the top third or so off to give the cleanup crew a bit of an assist.

I'm here to say that in two days all that was left was the pile of deer hair on the ground!

My goodness talk about bird activity in the daytime and I'm assuming the night shift was mostly coyotes, but surely could have been black bears too as we're seeing more of them.

Anyways that's our situation here so it's mildly surprising to me when carcasses get found anywhere, though if they're fresher that makes sense.

But yah, folks whose paycheck gets affected by predators will deal with the issue as they see fit or at least that's been my experience with my contacts in the agricultural producers in the western provinces.

All the best to you folks this week regardless sir. Stay warm, well and dry.

Dwayne

The most important stuff in life isn't "stuff"