I was actually using humor to make a point about my Chihuahua. I was tempted to leave her outside all night when we first got her. It was miserable getting her potty trained to use the cat box and I thought of putting her in a pen with a dog house over night. Thankfully she got trained before going to the pen. Good thing I tested my pen design on less expensive birds, as I explain below.
We have had found chicken feathers and duck feathers with no chickens or ducks. We have lost Cottontail and Bugs because of the feral things out at night. It was poor pen design that must be done right. Then, we got wise and built the pen with a solid top and chicken wire that went two feet under the ground and curved outward. It was nice to have fresh chicken and duck eggs for breakfast again.
The real point is the priorities of animal rights people. They would rather animals of the feral nature to pester animals that humans keep domestically. In our neck of the woods, people have been attacked by a gaze of raccoons. The bottom line is, these feral animals will taste our domestic animals and move on to lip-smacking humans. Mmmmmm!
Game fencing is used a lot here for pens-dig a trench, bury a foot or two of the fencing, then finish the fence-it will thwart raccoons as long as there is a secure top on the structure, and no gap they can claw into. I’m more terrified of wild/feral hogs than any other predator-they are bad tempered, huge, and have no scruples about attacking humans.
As long as we don’t go romping all alone in the animals’ dining room, they seem okay with leaving us alone here-in California, people build a whole subdivision in the woods, dispose of trash carelessly, turn loose pets, jog and ride bikes in cougar and bear country, all alone etc-and wonder why people get attacked...