If Larry's cat is anything like either of mine ....... it'd love every bite!
For those that don't understand hunting as a game animal management tool, the simple version of the story goes like this: That come a bad winter, when the forage carrying capacity of the range is at a minimum, for each animal that a hunter doesn't bag, 10 will suffer the horrible death of starvation, disease and/or freezing! If anyone needs the details, I'll try to provide them, but for simplicities sake let us assume a herd of 11 deer in a range that has a best-case carrying capacity of 10 animals. Towards the end of the winter when all forage has been eaten, each animal will only have gotten 90% of the food that it needs to survive. Given one savage late winter storm in that scenario, you now have 11 animals that have starved and/or frozen to death. Beyond that the carrying capacity of the range has also been severely compromised by over grazing/browsing and will likely not recover for a few years either. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather live a fine life and die quickly, than slowly die of hunger, disease and cold.
Yes, game animals do need hands on management because we have taken up so much of their former range. In many places back east and the Mid-west especially, the deer populations are greater than in any time in the historic past. There are several reasons for this, but suffice it to say that the deer population in the US is likely greater now than when Columbus landed. So yes, to a great extent it is our fault, such that it is also now our responsibility!
The reality is, that in nature, nothing dies of old age!!!
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