Reminds me of the sheep ranchers we had in Utah about a hundred years ago when I was stationed there.
The ranchers exterminated the coyote population because they were eating the sheep (having seen Utah sheep and Utah coyotes it would take a bunch of them to kill a sheep. Utah has some tough sheep!)
Ut oh. Now the land is over run by Jack Rabbits. Jack Rabbits are eating all the range grass and the sheep are starving.
Solution: Start spreading poison to kill the Jack Rabbits.
Ut oh, Sheep like to eat poisoned grass and die
Solution: Put up fences ($$$$) to keep the sheep away from the poisoned grass
Ut oh, Jack Rabbits don't like eating poisoned grass when there is nice fresh grass on the other side of the fence.
Solution: Build rabbit proof fences ($$$)
Ut oh, Sheep kept in confined areas over feed on the ground and the grass won't grow back.
Solution: Open up the areas for the sheep to graze
Ut oh open ranges are not only still poisoned but heavily diseased because the poison killed all the other little animals. Sheep start getting sick.
Oh and the Jack Rabbits? They are feeding on the left over grass that is too sparse to support the sheep.
No one bothered to tell the ranchers that coyotes eat Jack Rabbits. And the ranchers were too stupid to do any research to find out that coyotes would only eat sick and dying sheep, not healthy sheep (sheep are quite capable of defending themselves. Especially Utah Sheep. Sheep with an ATTITUDE!).
Sometimes the ranchers are the stupidest people in the world. You would assume that a rancher understands about nature and the interdependences? Wrongo!
They interfere with the natural cycles and don't bother trying to understand nature. Successful ranchers work WITH nature, not against it.
Every year the poor rancher would whine and moan about their plight. No sympathy from me idiots! I applauded every time one of the ranches went on the auction block. I hoped that the next owners would pull their heads out of their arses and actually learn about ranching.
Just before I rotated out, I heard that there was a new and innovative plan to help the ranchers -- reintroducing coyotes. It appears that coyotes like to eat Jack Rabbits
