Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Thermalseeker
A few years ago my female lab had a litter of puppies. When the pups were about 5 weeks old I started putting them outside in the yard in a kennel in the grass. One evening I was sitting in the living room looking out the window and a barred owl came to roost in a tree above the kennel. The owl was obviously eyeballing the puppies for dinner. If I hadn't been there I'm sure one or more of the pups would have been eaten. We had a neighbor with a chihuahua that was taken away by a red tailed hawk some years ago, too.

I remember back in the 50s, before animal rights activists had gained any type of power, how they mounted a huge campaign against killing Red Tail hawks because, they claimed, the hawks didn't really kill chickens. There was simply "no such thing as a chicken hawk". While techinically there were correct on the name they were not correct on what a hawk would or wouldn't kill. Chickens were regularly killed off by hawks. I was always amazed they the non chicken owners who actually believed that hype.

Hawks, owls, eagles, ospreys will all kill and eat whatever they are strong enough to fly off with.

62 posted on 03/11/2010 5:46:44 AM PST by calex59
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies ]


To: calex59
You don't see many chicken farmers in my neck of the woods that don't have some sort of barrier above their birds, chicken wire, tin roofing, etc. There are a lot of people who raise game chickens in this area of the south. They always have a roof over their birds because of hawks and owls.

I've always found it neat that Eagles and Ospreys will catch a fish, then turn it head first into the relative wind as they fly away, reducing the drag of what they are carrying.

66 posted on 03/11/2010 6:01:33 AM PST by Thermalseeker (Stop the insanity - Flush Congress!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson