I guess the point is people need to take care of their animals, or they become a problem for everyone then.

From a survival perspective, animals is animals. Some depend on humans, most can get by well enough on their own. Few of them provide much support for our survival, except to become a much needed meal. The few that do help usually require a significant investment of our time to develop the requisite symbiotic skills (security, stealth, predation).

For my part, I do the only thing available to me by law, which is exactly what I've described. It is not the most humane in the short term, but perhaps in the long run it is better for the species (both ours and theirs).

Those who shirk their responsiblities lose their privileges. There are no exceptions. Better a feral dog kill a calf than my child, and that is unfortunately the cold, hard choice I am left with, both by my idiot neighbors and by the idiots downtown who make stupid rules.

I guess I could just shoot the things for trespassing, only I have grown weary of putting down people's pets. I used to do it as a favor, but it is tough to plug ole fido anymore.

Here in Baghdad, dogs are not pets, they are a menace. The Iraqis don't want anything to do with them, and we hear about rabid cases regularly. We use well trained and cared for dogs to complement our security.

I really would like to be more compassionate about the whole affair, and I reckon if I didn't have certain responsibilities myself, I might take in more strays, or be more the neighborhood sentinel, watching over the canine residents and visitors from on high. Alas, such is not to be for me, and so I must be the belligerent landowner.

Thank goodness my own dog understands these things. He is quite happy and content to stay on his leash when we go for walks, or to play out in the fenced in backyard. He only has wanderlust when we are in the field hunting for birds. If he were to get out and wander around, I would worry and fret over him like a lost child, and be ashamed at not caring for my charge as I should.

I am not trying to help these vagabonds, except to get them away from uncaring owners. What happens beyond that, my concern does not reach to.