Y’know, even though I grew up on a farm, I really don’t know a whole heck of a lot about cattle! We just kept enough to keep ourselves in milk and meat and auction off enough to pay the bills at the end of the year, so we didn’t worry too much about breeds – our herd always had a variety of breeds. My sister, on the other hand, keeps track of all that stuff, after switching from dairy to beef (actually, she kept track of the dairy cattle, too, but with a different focus). She’s got it all organized on the computer in such detail! *L*

We’ve got coyotes out our way, too. Years ago, my BIL kept a trap line on their property and would sell the pelts for a bit of extra cash. Most of their neighbours did as well, or they allowed a old Native trapper set up lines on their land. A few years back, some animal rights people convinced their municipality (which is kinda like a county for you guys, I think) to ban trapping. Within a year, the coyote numbers skyrocketed. Where they used to see a few solitary animals that generally avoided the cattle in favour of deer, suddenly there were packs of them. Soon the deer were not enough and they started killing cattle. Nothing worse than finding their prey that got away from them, only to die from their injuries later. Some had to euthanize their injured cattle, but the laws don’t allow people to euthanize the suffering deer. They had to call the local RCMP to send someone over to take care of it. Eventually, the municipality overturned the ban on trapping but it was such a mess, my BIL never took on trapping himself after that. They struck a deal with the Native trapper that was working lines on their neighbours’ land, instead.

A lot of well meaning people get really upset about humans killing off predatory animals, but they forget that humans are part of the ecosystem as well and, quite frankly, us keeping predator numbers down through hunting and trapping is a lot kinder than letting their numbers get out of control. Not only because of the damage they can do to other wildlife (or even humans), but when their numbers get too unsustainable and starvation and disease starts kicking in.