How Can People Who Move To The Country Not Understand Nature?

I signed up for a "neighborhood forum" called Next Door. They take your address and assign you to a section of the forum with those in your geography. I ended up being assigned to the same forum as those who are in a sprawling gated community about 5 miles up the road.

Today someone posted this:

Even after typing it out, Cause and Effect somehow never meet.

There have been periodic angry comments that the game department won't come and tranquilize every trespassing ursus americanus and "relocate them." I'm not sure where these people expect Mister Ranger to take Yogi...there is known bear presence in at least 92 of Virginia's 98 counties and cities. At least today's comment received sane responses ("Take down the buffet until winter.") But there were a few "Why don't they do something about this?" posts as well.

Along a similar face-palm line, we have no municipal water & sewage in the country except for in the main town, and this gated community is hitting the same aquifers as the Lowes, Walmart and other stores & restaurants across the street. You will see the occasional "Does anyone else have brown water this morning?" comment, then two days later someone else will post "Who here can recommend a good lawn sprinkler installation business?" It boggles the mind.

 

I'll equate that with the family who bought a farmhouse in Iowa and immediately began filing complaints about the smell from the pig farm next door. While it doesn't speak to an understanding of nature, it speaks to the same resistance to reality. Unfortunately, today, those who are opposed to reality often have the upper hand.

Although in the entire history of Maine, the only person to have been killed by a black bear was a gas station owner who went into the cage holding the bear that he had bought as a promotion for his gas station in the 1930s, people are still worried about the bears eating their babies. Of course, now that the wolves are mostly gone, they want to rid the state of every coyote. And bugs; of course, we can't have any bugs. They all have to be sprayed with something.

A couple of decades ago, I put up a bird feeder on our second-floor fire escape. The squirrels claimed it and now, while we still get birds from time to time, we enjoy the squirrels. I could enjoy the raccoons too, but they're too expensive so I relocate them when they get to be too much of a bother.

"Oh, it's wonderful living out in the country. If only they'd get rid of all the animals and insects, and maybe cut some of those trees that are attracting them..."

 

I sure did, but I'm not living in the country.

 

You wouldn't believe the stories the pest control guys tell of the new arrivals here.

There was another comment on that forum from someone who moved to a home on a lot carved out of the middle of the woods, and then whined about "this backwards county" because she could not get a cell signal and lacked line-of-site for a satellite dish for internet. There's still a ton of people here who have never been on the web. They've never had an email account.

I've heard quite a number of people who've moved here and then gone to the Board of Supervisors raging "Do something about the lack of broadband here!!!" In the meantime, this county is going the way all counties go when they start to grow. Unneeded business parks, questionable apartment complex approved for that area with the already-stressed aquifer, other deals where there are pure conflicts-of-interest with country supervisors benefiting, done in a back-door manner. Few people stand up and say anything...just give them their broadband.

Bread and circuses, baby.

 

And these are the same idiots who are going to control our lives to "save the planet."

I've often said that the one thing I cannot tolerate is "Aggressive Stupid"
-I loathed it in the workplace
-I loathe it in our culture

I'll throw another one out there I read on that forum: whining about stray dogs. There are deer and racoon and possums and a ton of other stuff roaming around freely, but nothing gets their pants wetter than a critter who must be someone's property. "It must be violating a law!!!"

smfh

 

THAT's interesting.

It's sad that such a thing is required.
One of the things I researched before moving to this county were the minutes from Board of Supervisor meetings, just to get a flavor of how things were being managed. There had been people moving here and complaining about (a) the noise from agricultural equipment and (b) the sound of gunfire. The county basically gave them the middle finger. But I know it's just a matter of time. Pants-wetters always seem to have deep pockets, and people who are for sale shall always find their way into public office.

The one thing that I do find to be offensive is the spreading of treated human waste on fields here. Reduced (and theoretically, sanitized) solid human waste is trucked in to the county to be spread on fields as a form of fertilizer and as a way to get rid of it. The land owner gets paid, and the county takes a cut. Now, I'm one of those people who enjoys the smells of the country, including fertilized fields. I roll my windows down--not up--when driving through farm areas. Growing up in Indiana will do that to you. But this stuff is disgusting. The guy on the adjoining property participates in the program. To me, that is not a by-product of farming, it's a nasty way to turn a buck. Fortunately, it's only done once a year.

 

I cannot imagine shooting a dog, unless it was a nuisance to farm critters.

I have hunting dogs on my property all the time...some with tracking collars, some without. I once had dogs from a farm several miles up the road hanging around for a few days. They were wearing collars with a phone number on them. I called the guy just to let him know where his dogs were, assuring him that I didn't give a damn they were here. I didn't feed them or give them water...they had to go back home (or scrounge) if they got hungry or thirsty. But they weren't harming anything.

On the flip side, just a couple of weeks ago I was outside and a couple of twin pit bulls suddenly blasted out of the brush chasing a small rabbit. They chased that thing literally around my legs and through my yard for a while before it finally lost them. They had no collar, but were obviously well-cared for. For some reason, THAT made me angry. They were on my property acting out, trying to kill my rabbits, not just passing through. But I certainly was not angry enough to kill them. I haven't seen them since.

They are dogs. There is no "intent." They're fine, as long as they don't represent a danger.
Now, dealing with irresponsible owners is a completely different matter.

 

Though I seriously doubt that anyone would have shot my tiny Pekingese dog for chasing a deer (she couldn’t run fast enough to keep up , in any case), there is a problem with dogs (especially in packs) chasing deer , as well as farm animals.
Once dogs learn to run a deer, there is no way to stop them, unless the owner keeps them contained so that they can’t just run at liberty. The owner may be gone to work, and have no clue what their dog is doing all day long, and since the dog is always home happily waiting to greet the owner when he or she comes home, the owner does not know what their dog has been doing all day.

Usually, if you see a dog running deer or livestock, and you recognize the dog, the first thing to do would be to notify the owner that their dog was chasing deer.
However, if you have a herd of cattle, sheep, or horses, and there is a dog out there running them through the fence, or just chasing them with intention to attack, then the owner of the livestock is probably going to just shoot the dog, and not think twice about doing so.

Going out to find that one of your animals has to be put down because dogs chewed it up too badly to save the animal is not a pleasant thing, and I totally understand why they sometimes have to be killed if they are attacking other animals.