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  • From: Tom Alexander <tom@growingedge.com>
  • To: gardenwriters-on-gardening <gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [gwl-g] picket line
  • Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 14:21:53 -0800

I didn't own a gun until I was over 50. On our rural 4 acre mini-farm that we moved onto 12 years ago, we have 85 fruit trees, 110 blueberry bushes, and much of our summer produce and table flowers; we spent $1,200 on a deer fence around the place so we could grow things and starve the deer. I was forced to buy a gun after five years of battling with the raccoons, trying all kinds of concoctions to keep them away. They are supposed to be "nocturnal" animals but they were roaming our property at all hours of the day. They climb the fruit trees to sample the fruit just as it is getting ripe to pick and not only accomplish that very well but break the branches climbing to get it. The love biting into the drip irrigation lines for water, which costs me hundreds every year to replace. They sample strawberries for dessert after sampling various veggies as their main course. Notice I say sample because most times they don't even eat more than a bite. Right before shooting them, as you get close to them, they stand up very cutely on their hind legs with their front paws up like they are surrendering while giving a great target (instead of rings on their tails they should have concentric circles on their chests). I start digging a hole in the ground shortly thereafter. We have a raccoon cemetery that gets filled up every three or four years when new ones start to re-populate the place.

I give the squirrels a reprieve because they don't do the damage the raccoons do, other than planting acorns in all the pots and beds. The rabbits have an appeal with the Supreme Court but their day on death row may be coming soon, at least they don't sample but eat very heartily.

I love watching the cute little animals, and I am a vegetarian, more for health reasons than ethically putting their lives equal to humans, but they are destroying my live veggies that I grow and consume for veggie food. I spend a good amount of my hard earned money on raising my own food and I bust my ass and back growing, so I can eat it, not feed the wild animals.

I am sure some will find this offensive but you are entitled to your opinion. And if you want to come out, bust your back and ass to help me grow food to feed my family and watch the critters eat it, be my guest.

Tom Alexander
People for the Ethical Treatment of Veggies (PETV)
tom@growingedge.com



On Dec 4, 2007, at 12:54 PM, Larry Maxcy wrote:

Raccoons (correct spelling) are not just cute little Disney animals.
Stay away from them and from their droppings. Just Google "raccoon
disease" to see what diseases, parasites, and other bad stuff they
carry. They also kill cats. Of course, some may think that's beneficial.

Larry
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