Wildlife Services! This is one way they can leave the negative behind…
Funnily enough the USDA’s Wildlife services seems to be content to live life in the shadow of a reputation that promotes widespread removal of animals-to the tune of millions and millions of wildlife deaths a year. Why do they allow themselves to be viewed with such contempt when they have strong academic investment in the field of non-lethal deterrents and conflict prevention? This is an area we can all get on board with and an area we should encourage them to focus their resources on.
To be fair, they only respond to removal requests at the invitation of landowners or on those occasions where public safety is at risk, such as the presence of rabid animals in residential areas or the threat of large flocks of birds around airports.
Things work according to ‘following the money’. How can we incentivize growers to invest in non-lethal deterrents rather than slaughter, which doesn’t actual solve the problem-it just delays it until the next carnivore has an opportunity to access an unprotected flock?