In today’s politically correct environment the animal rights people keep trying to force the rest of us not to eat meat, wear leather, fur or use animal products. My belief is that GOD placed animals here for us to use responsibly and humanely. Whatever your thoughts the truth is that with the low fur prices very little predator hunting or trapping takes place and most predators are multiplying out of control in many areas of Texas. Raccoons have gotten out of control in our part of the State and are responsible for destroying many game bird and song bird nests. Coyotes are after just about everything smaller than they are including your sheep and poultry. Just driving on the highway we see large numbers of predators that have been run over by traffic each night. They tear up our supplemental wildlife feeders, bird feeders and make nightly raids on cattle, sheep and goat feeders. The bird nest boxes we put up are often raided and hummingbird feeders are destroyed on a regular basis. Nothing that smells of feed or food is safe as they come out every night in large numbers. Free ranging poultry is completely out of the question. What will happen is that they will eat themselves out of house and home unless controlled. As the population increases they become susceptible to disease breakouts of rabies and other diseases dangerous to us along with our livestock and pets.
