In the decades since I started raising livestock, I’ve had my share of issues with predators. There was the coyote that ate one of my goat kids. To be fair, we’d named him “Pain” because he was a pain in the butt and he would never hang with the herd. In the end, I think that’s why he was picked off and no one else was bothered. Then there was the attack on a number of goats, described in the first article in this collection. In Loveland, Colorado, I lost two flocks of chickens, one to a bear and the other to a raccoon.
It’s heart-breaking and frustrating to lose animals to predators. It’s also been inspiring. Predators have taught me how to think more creatively when it comes to solving problems.
And that’s the theme of this collection of articles: thinking outside-the-box about predators and how we deal with them. We start with my first predator loss, and then add three articles from folks in Oregon who think differently about predators and the solutions to living with them. I hope they inspire you too!
How Babba Louie Taught Me To Think Creatively About Predators
