This book is meant to be both a guide and reference work on nonlethal methods for ranchers, farmers, backyard-animal raisers and homesteaders on how to keep predators away. It is both a learning tool for protecting livestock and pets from harm, as well as a proactive mechanism for living in harmony with animal predators.
The book is divided into three major sections: an introductory section on predators in the modern world, which provides background and history on the US environmental movement and previous political and historical approaches for dealing with predatory animals, along with quick guides for determining which predators one is dealing with in relation to sheep, poultry and other livestock, and a section which comprises the bulk of the volume discussing various types of predatory animals in 15 chapters and subchapters. Predatory animals discussed include canines (wolves, coyotes, foxes), cats (mountain lion, jaguar, bobcat, Canada lynx, ocelot), bears (black, grizzly, others), weasels (wolverine, fisher, badger, mink, martens), raccoons, skunks, opossums, rats (Norway, black, cotton), domestic and feral animals (swine, dogs, domestic cats), birds of prey (eagles, hawks, vultures), owls (great horned, barred, other), crows (American, common, magpie), snapping turtles (common, alligator), gators and crocs, and snakes; the final section lists a number of nonlethal prevention and protection strategies.
There are numerous colour photographs, maps, statistics, data and tables included in the content, as well as a number of appendices providing additional resources both in print and online. The author obviously has both practical and learned experience on this topic, and provides numerous suggestions on defence, protection and nonlethal prevention strategies for dealing with and living with predatory animals. I highly recommend this book for those who deal on a daily basis with these situations, as well as for those who want a better understanding of environmentally proactive and harmonious ecological life cycles involving both humans and nature.
