4 ms·
The argument is that farmers (or anyone else) actually do have a right to protect/defend their property (livestock are property). So when the government says th
by jacurtis 6y ago
The argument is that farmers (or anyone else) actually do have a right to protect/defend their property (livestock are property). So when the government says that you can't protect your property if the thing killing it is a wolf, then farmers get very frustrated because they feel like their freedom/rights have been controlled or taken away from the government.
To put the farmer's perspective another way:
Everyone has a right to self-defense if you are being harmed. But imagine if the government says "actually, if the person harming you has blonde hair, then you can't defend yourself because we are protecting people with blonde hair right now. But don't worry we will make it worth your while if you just let the blonde person hurt you."
I know this sounds like a crazy example, but if you have ever spent time around farmers who deal with this issue, it feels exactly as crazy to them.
- wbl 6y agoThat's what fences are for
- gambiting 6y agoI think you absolutely, grossly underestimate what kinds of areas we're talking about. Not to mention that fences then stop movement of other animals(also including wolves) which has massive impacts on ecosystems. Also, if you ever had a dog, you know that no kind of fence will stop a sufficiently determined dog unless you make it out of solid metal and 10ft tall(and even then my dog would just dig under it, so be prepared to have to bury it few feet under the ground too).
- rtkwe 6y agoLarge fences big enough to keep wolves out have a lot of other knock on effects and are very expensive. Barbed wire is extremely cheap and is enough to generally contain grazing livestock contained but a lot of wildlife can freely move around them meaning their habitat doesn't get cut up and cut off from itself. A tall fence buried deep enough to keep wolves from digging under would be very expensive.
- spiderfarmer 6y agoIn Germany they stopped using these fences in a lot places because deer got stuck in them. And wolves just created holes below the fences and still killed lots of livestock. Empty slogans like "Build the fence" only work for politicians and activists.
- chrisco255 6y agoWolves can dig and since ranching in the midwest/northwest requires a lot of acreage, it's difficult to keep a perimeter fence up that's impenetrable by wolves.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- pnw_hazor 6y agoNo fences in open range areas.
- pfisch 6y agoNow replace blonde person with the police.