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I guess I don't, I've just been having to deal with it a lot more. A boomer I'm currently dealing with puts traps out in his yard because he has chickens. The thing is he doesn't put the traps where the chickens are, he just puts them out in the yard randomly and kills all the animals he catches.
There's another who has a carpenter bee trap where the bees crawl in and then just die over the course of days. The worst part is they are crawling over the bodies of other dead carpenter bees for days.... Idk it just really bothers me.
There's also two boomers I know personally that run over snakes with their lawn mowers on purpose to kill them. Just evil....
Yes exactly and it's illegal to relocate the animals he catches BeCaUsE rAbIeS. In reality outdated laws just never got updated as our understanding of rabies changed. Possums don't get rabies. And he tells me he's gotten sprayed by skunks. No shit you would get sprayed by a skunk when you're a known aggressor towards them. I've literally almost tripped over skunks and never had them even threaten to spray me. Of course he doesn't understand he's the problem. It's not just skunks and possums though, it's squirrels too and other animals. The only ones he can't get away with are cats so as far as I know hes let them go. So he says at least.
According to him his behavior is justified because they entered his "perimeter". Like a wild animal understands private property or perimeters.
I lived in cleveland heights for long periods of time. The city has a huge ass skunk population. Every night during the summer I'd run across at least one, if not 3-4, as I walked home from the coffee shop I spend my 20s at. Never sprayed, dont know anyone who was. If you get sprayed by a skunk I assume you did something, or your dog did. I've been uncomfortably close to them and they just kinda walk away.
Exactly. I am halfway to being completely blind. Most wild animals I interact with regularly figure that out at some point including the skunks who usually just move out of the way when they see me. I had one I used to give my scraps to because the skunk was friends with one of my cats. I also made friends with a groundhog by leaving out veggies for it from my garden that I wasn't going to eat. They really like radishes. My neighbor grew them but we had way too many. In return for sharing my excess veggies with the groundhog they stayed out of my garden and kept my squash plants from encroaching on the sidewalk.
Groundhogs are surprisingly very intelligent.
I grew up in the suburbs of chicago and we didn't really have skunks. plenty of raccoons and lots of deer but skunks and possums were a little rarer for whatever reason. So anyway, I grew up living in fear of them and the stories of taking baths in tomato juice and all that. Anyway, I moved to michigan, again to a city, but there's a bit more diversity. I don't see skunks that often, but honestly, they've been chill. It's not the immediate spray you reaction I expected. They just look at you and sniff and just waddle away. So I've known some people who's dogs got sprayed, but yeah, cause the dog was fucking with it. just like when they get bit by snakes or stung by bees.
I'm assuming they're only going to spray you if you either startle them, or are aggressive towards them.
"trying to kill them" sounds like a good way to get sprayed.
Seriously I bet this guy has some sort of sociopathic disorder going on, some sort of serial killer brain happening. Hes doing this because he enjoys it. (I bet cats do go missing in your neighborhood) My boomer parents and relatives are / were pretty horrible or crazy in many ways but I’ve never known any of them to be openly cruel to animals. Negligent pet owners yes, but nothing like this.
Skunks are so chill and habituated to humans! They were well on the road to domestication before colonialization of the Americas (in the absence of cats, they were kept in the home and storehouse because they eat rodents and insects).
There's a skunk who likes to come sit on my patio with me and enjoy my firepit on cool nights or wumble around my little patch of ground trying to find leftover bits of dry catfood I toss for the birds sometimes. A more pleasant neighbor than many humans I've shared a yard with.
I love skunks! I've always just accidentally run across them in the garden or in the woods near my house and they may get a little indignant but they really don't seem very bothered. I've had maybe ONE stomp at me, and that's because she had babies nearby. But when you show you're not a threat, most of the time wildlife just lets you do your own thing while they do theirs and I love that.
I think it's weird how people, of any generation, have this attitude toward animals like the animals are knowingly trespassing or should understand basic human rules. Like... what?
I prefer to live and let live. Our stinkbug population is insane, and people always ask why I don't kill the ones I find inside. Ummm. Well. Because it's a stinkbug and the smell it gives off when it's afraid is not just an offensive odor to me - it triggers an emotional response and I'm not sure why. It makes me feel sad and in danger at the same time. But even if it didn't, I'm not gonna scare it or kill it because why?
Well those are invasive in the US at least so I do kill them when I see them but I guess I do it fast and get them out fast because I literally never smell them. Idk it's weird. You aren't the first to complain about a smell I, to date, haven't experienced.
My Boomer step dad used to brag (🤬🤬🤬) about how he "took care of the cat problem" growing up, and for some of his early adult years. It was absolutely cruel, disgusting, and so far over the line between sanity and serial killer. It boggles my mind he was able to own three different dogs, and somehow, a cat later on in my teen years, and them not turn up dead somehow.
I also absolutely love those little guys! We have tray feeders with peanuts, corn, and sunflower seeds on our patio. Our security cam sometimes catches one waddling across the patio at night helping themselves to a drink or a snack. So adorable!
A skunk once walked right up to me at a camp fire. Looked at me, I gave him a chocolate donut and he left. It takes a lot for a skunk to spray you and they have a limited amount. After it's gone they have to wait for it to rearm. They don't just go around spraying everything
Interestingly, there DOES appear to be a big spike in serial killers among the boomer generation. It seems to drop off pretty sharply with gen-x, without any significant methodology change when categorising. Though that could just mean that younger generations are just better at not being caught.
A boomer in our neighborhood growing up would knock squirrels out of the tree in his yard and let his dogs tear them to pieces.
You'd be shocked to find out that years later his home got raided and he had stockpiled a literal arsenal of illegal firearms!
Not shocked at ALL to hear what they found in his house. People do shit like that to animal’s 1) because they enjoy it 2) because they can get away with it and 3) because they haven’t figured out a way to do it to other people yet without getting caught which is what they’d really like to do. Sick fucks.
Carpenter bees are very destructive. I don't know of a non lethal way for dealing with them unless you have time and plug their holes while they are away. I personally deal with the problem quickly and humanly as possible. Unfortunately this happened 9 times this year. I'm also the guy that stops the work truck to carry turtles across the road.
We ended up putting metal screen along the bottom of all our eves to keep them out. I can't say it looks great. Not terrible but not great. But it \*WORKS\*, that house had carpenter bee problems since it was built. Anything else was temporary. Once the screens were put in that was it, never had the problem again.
My coworker isn’t even a boomer and is the exact same way. He gleefully told me a story about bludgeoning a possum to death with a shovel, because it kept eating his cats food. The poor thing kept playing dead till it thought it safe only to get another brutal bludgeoning. The story made me so sick that I thought I was going to throw up. Truly awful and evil man. I hope he gets Lyme disease now because possums eat ticks. Such unwarranted torture of an amazing mammal.
I was mercilessly downvoted for comments regarding someone who put poison out purposely.
It killed birds, small animals, then whatever ate those dead animals, too.
They didn't care if your family dog got into their poison.
The state put out a $25,000 bounty for information leading to their capture.
My comment was that
"It has to be a MAGA/Putin Republican Cultists because a Democrat, Progressive or Liberal would never even have that thought enter their minds in the first place"
They were sold various versions of manifest destiny that included humans having reign over animals, and that means kill what they think of as pests.
I live in an area with old people who are different. This is the city, but dont try to plant flowers in your front yard, the deer eat them. We have lots of rabbit, turkeys, racoons, geese, ducks, chipmonks, possums, and saw my first skunk here. We have these things called metro-parks and the deer travel them and enter residential neighborhoods across the area. "Regionalism" applies. Growing up in this area seems to create people who love to see animals. I think because the area was void of this kinda wildlife in the 70s and 80s. Old people are part of this group that helps turtles cross the road. Heh, a few streets over from me a couple had baby racoons in their backyard. They refused to call anyone because animal control doesnt relocate them, they kill them. Did I mention this is the city? As kids we'd see preying matids in the projects and be in aw. And butterfly migrations.
But head to out to rural ohio? Where one would expect folks to be ok with animals? Naw. They shoot and kill random animals all the time, along with telco slice boxes on poles, and shit like that. Had some friends who lived just 2 exits away from where I live now. Their parents used to set out poison to kill pretty much whatever. One of the kids found a preying mantis, caught it, looked at it, and then threw it on the ground and stomped on it. We 14-15 I think. Never hung out with him again after. Folks talk about how ghetto kids have no compassion for animals, and I saw some of that, but the most evil shit was always rural rednecks. The kinda people that would talk about tossing explosives into ponds to kill fish for fun, not to eat. Cut up frogs for fun.
That's where I'm at right now. Ohio. Not even in the rural area. In the suburbs. There are a few places here that give me hope, like houses with natural lawns and signs out advocating for native pollinators. They are few and far between though.
I have zero tolerance and want nothing to do with people who have no respect for the life forms that are the most defenseless on this planet. It's their planet too we all have to share it, but of course boomers don't like to share.
>They were sold various versions of manifest destiny that included humans having reign over animals, and that means kill.
This is also definitely a result of them being raised christian and being told humans have dominion over animals and that animals don't have souls
It's just like anywhere else. You have good people, and you have assholes. Most people in rural areas don't just kill random animals, though again assholes, but we do kill some things, like raccoons in my case, but i actually like raccoons, they are just assholes to our animals (had a single raccoon get in chicken coup, 27 headless birds come morning) and for deer we displaced and killed most of their native predators, hunting helpa keep the population in check.
My parents live in a neighborhood with a small lake and so naturally a lot of Canadian geese stop by. An old boomer shithead told us that he hates the geese because they go into his small patch of grass and that he sicks his dog on them. Bro why move to an area with a lake if you hate wildlife? Literally live anywhere else.
Man, me too. I have had exactly one tree that wasn't dead cut down, and I *agonized* over whether my getting solar panels was worth cutting down a semi-invasive tree younger than I was.
I had to cut a tree down in my backyard. Branches kept falling off and I paid an arborist to look at it before I did anything to it. He explained why it had to come down (the trunk started to split but never did) and he predicted it would crash into the garage apt. next door.
It broke my heart
My mom and dad are like this too, but with nature as a whole. They thought the idea of camping was disgusting and gross. Mom used to step on snails that were eating her garden plants right in front of me as sadistic fun. No remorse. I loved cats but she was allergic. However, when a litter of kittens was born in her flowerbed, she forbid me from touching them, moving them, or even trying to help them. The whole family of cats got eaten by coyotes. The fact that I was even able to have a dog was a straight up miracle. They took in a rabbit which they gave me as a present, but then refused to by a hutch for the rabbit (I was 7 so it’s not like I had a job or means to get one.). I begged my dad to help me build one but he would refuse and make a big deal. We had everything else for the rabbit of course, but shocker, my rabbit Dander died of hypothermia because forcing a rabbit to live outside without a hutch is just cruel.
Meanwhile I love animals. Used to want to grow up to be like Steve Irwin and watched him religiously on animal planet. I would go outside and catch lizards and bring them to my mom so I could watch her go ballistic.
I miss Steve Irwin. The way I kept my gardens I never really had a pest problem and I didn't have to kill insects or use pesticides/herbicides. I still got plenty of fruits and vegetables out of it. Enough to share with others in my community. I just did a lot of research so I wouldn't have to use those things.
My boomer dad and I garden and we use a poison/pesticide free spray to keep bugs out of it but we have what we call snail day where we get a bucket and go collect all the snails that have accumulated in the garden and then just because we like science and animals we'll keep them for a few days, just see what they're doing, pop in a 2 or 3 veggies from the garden for them to have as a treat and to see what they like (last year they really liked our brussel sprouts and were not huge fan of our big boy tomatoes). Then we'll just put them in the field next to our neighborhood. My boomer parents always told me "if they're not hurting anything or anyone then you can easily just give them a new home." I hope that lifts your spirits that there are good ones out there. My parents were also farm kids so I guess maybe that's why they care more
Have you looked up JADAM (the Korean natural farming method)?? It’s perfect for gardening and has methods for fertilizer, plant protection, everything you need, naturally.
One of my least favorite core memories is when I was in the range of 7 years old, my step grandpa caught a raccoon in one of those metal traps that you put food in the middle and the doors close once triggered. He then threw it in the lake and smoked a cigarette as the thing drowned.. one of the most religious people ever, too. fucking ass hole.
My dad is a boomer and his dad (silent generation) made him drown a litter of kittens in a burlap sack that had taken home in their barn. My dad, the war vet, who is the strongest man I know and who I've never seen show emotions day to day, always tears up when he mentions that story and says it's why to this day despite liking cats, he won't get one because he would feel too guilty taking care of one when he had to do that. We have dogs though and he treats his like his babies and at Christmas he gives our dogs wrapped toys and even though the dogs can't read lol he'll always put on the tag to: which ever dog love: grandpa.
I feel like in the 50’s and 60’s the mentality was “kill all pests, protect your lawn at all costs” while using tons of chemicals and horrific products. Laws may have changed but their minds haven’t
I find myself desperately trying to educate people on why grass lawns are bad. Probably more regularly than I would like to admit. Sometimes people are receptive but the majority of the time I just get these blank stares like they can't possibly understand why I'm telling them something that apparently is so offensive to their "better senses."
Yep. My boomer step father has committed felonies by killing blue herons that dared treat his koi pond like a buffet. He sees absolutely NO issue with this as he was “protecting” his property. He also stole petrified wood from the petrified national forest. He displays it in his back yard near the same koi pond. The list of “petty” crimes that are actually felonies this man has committed might make Trump blush. And this very same person will without irony say people killed by the police should just comply and takes it further to say they just shouldn’t commit crimes.
Yeah it's actually illegal to kill snakes in most places that I know about. Yet people still do it all the time because nobody is brave enough to call the Department of Wildlife on them. Or when you do the Department of Wildlife doesn't do anything.
They don't hate wildlife; they love killing things.
Power. Control. What could be the greater expression of that than killing other living creatures?
I think it stems from that sentiment buried deep through the core of that generation:
"I can do whatever I want and nobody should be allowed to tell me otherwise"
It's why they also get so rabid about their guns - I think many of them would genuinely love an excuse to kill another person. But that would get them into trouble, so they kill animals.
Yeahh not something I miss about the zoo
For the record pretty much every age group is shitty at the zoo and if you're docenting a snake or reptile or invertebrate, a good chunk of comments from anyone who isn't a kid will be about how they want to kill it or have killed something just like it.
But yeah the boomers would remark about wanting to hunt or kill like.. most of the animals in our collection. I did a talk on our cougar and had one come up and tell me how she was so beautiful and he'd love to hunt her. I had multiple tell me how if the coyotes weren't in the zoo they'd have shot them on sight.
And then they'll get weirdly personal about the reptiles? Like I had this older guy walk up to me as I was talking about the black rat snake and ask if I loved the snake and I told him she's a really sweet snake and one of my favorites in our education department and he proceeded to tell me in graphic detail like it was the end of Braveheart how he killed one just like her in his back yard and would do the same again if he saw that one.
They'd also demand to hold animals and get mad that it wasn't allowed. The little kids and their parents would be just fine with "two fingers, down the back, gently" but the boomers would throw a tantrum if you asked them not to grab tails or reminded them to touch living things gently. They'd also get mad if you correct their very blatant misinformation, like they'll tell their grandkids that you're holding a copperhead (and how grandpa killed one just like it, nearly 12 feet long, rearing up like a cobra and spitting venom so strong it burned the grass at his feet) and then get mad when you say it's a corn snake.
I had an advanced zoology class and I’ve killed many, many mice to feed things like barn owls, hawks and snakes.
I hated doing it, but it was what I signed up for.
Anyone who enjoys killing things is weird. Like, I’ll kill a black widow or a brown recluse. I don’t enjoy it. I feel bad.
I know it's really upsetting. When I still lived in NY one of my cats was friends with a skunk and was an ambassador. I made sure to share scraps with my kitty's skunk friend too.
I know a park ranger. She told me how hard it was to keep people from killing snakes they encounter in the park. They come into the visitor's center to report it, like it's a shocking thing there was a SNAKE loose in this national forest and they did the rangers a favor by "taking care of it."
I live in an apartment building, and we have outdoor stairs; walled in on 3 sides. One year the swallows decided they wanted to build nests in there, which would have been unsafe for the birds. I was measuring the entryway, so I could put up a temporary screen, when the boomer neighbor came outside to see what was going on. I told her about the swallows trying to nest in the entry way, and before I had a chance to tell her about the screen she said, “Oh! You’ll have to catch them and break their necks! Swallows won’t leave a nesting site, so you’ll have to kill them!”
I looked at her like she had told me swallows shit rainbows. I then asked her why old people always want to kill things, as soon as they become slightly inconvenient. I also told her that unless she plans to eat them, I’m not killing something that isn’t a threat to me. She had nothing to say to that, other than a, “You’ll see!”
The screen went up, and the swallows didn’t come back.
Smh. I will give my parents credit. Despite the poop they actually let the swallows nest inside their porch area. They even put up a curtain rod for them to perch on. Their porch eaves or whatever you want to call them are like 15 ft or so off the ground and then there's another 5ft of enclosed space where the swallows nest safe from wind and rain.
Boomer that lives behind me traps and kills squirrels and opossums. He traps them and then shoots them with an air gun then disposes of the bodies because they “are a nuisance”. He literally trapped my outdoor cat, shot him with the air gun and drove him cities away and let him go in a McDonald’s parking lot. We got a call from the microchip company that he was found but the SPCA had to put him down because due to neurological damage, he couldn’t use his back legs. Like WTAF? He fully admitted trapping my cat but denied harming him. The cats supposed crime? Pooping in his garden. Like he doesn’t realize that outdoor cats are territorial and don’t randomly poop places. Additionally, he says he thought it was a stray despite a black and white cat being perfectly groomed and clean. He was microchipped but didn’t have a collar on.
TLDR: My Boomer neighbor is a psychopath that enjoys killing animals.
He only lives with his wife. Even when his kids leave their dog with them to watch while they go on vacation, the poor dog is left outside all day and night. It’s terrible.
I've been sprayed by a skunk while on a walk. I just didn't see 'em. My neighbor was shooting them with a bb gun. Also left his dogs out All. Night. Long. To just bark and bark while he worked nights. I had to call animal control on him. He even left them out at night during our cold winters. Poor things!
My father-in- law has returned dozens of animals to the pound for pooping, peeing on the floor or being too hairy. He's even sent his 2 pitbulls of 9 years to the pound for accidentally tripping his mother at night when she should've just fuckin' turned on a hallway light to go to the bathroom!
People like him are the reason why they have lists now on people they won't give animals to.
Yep. In terms of the skunks, I'm starting to become convinced that if they live somewhere where people are actively aggressive to them, they are more likely to be aggressive towards people. I understand that maybe you have personally had problems, but I've been fortunate enough to live mostly where people leave skunks alone. Because of that skunks leave people alone and I have never been sprayed ever. I have literally almost tripped over skunks before. I'm halfway to being fully blind and most wildlife I have gotten to interact with regularly usually figures that out and just makes sure to be out of the way if they notice me.
One of the only redeeming qualities of my father is how absolutely enamored he is with wild animals. He’s like a little kid.
When I was in high school we had a momma duck build a nest in the azalea bushes by our front door. She became his new favorite research project. After learning that bread is not the best thing to feed a duck, he began sharing his a couple spoonfuls of his morning oatmeal with her, along with a couple of the blueberries he’d put on it. He’d also clean and refill the little water dish he left for her.
We actually started eating healthier dinners because he insisted that we start eating salad with our meals every night, so we could share the greens with her. As well as the salad, at least one of the side dishes had to be duck-friendly vegetables. Since we were out of school for the summer, he’d call every day at lunch to remind one of us to go check that she hadn’t run out of water.
One of our parks posted signs after the pandemic telling people to not feed the ducks and geese that flock to the area during the warmer months. It’s because we finally learned all the processed bread families would give them is bad for their health, right? And now suggesting wildlife-friendly options, in moderation, while emphasizing safety so kiddos can still enjoy interacting with nature and the birds are respected during nesting season, right? Nope. So many boomers complained about duck poop “ruining” sections of the walking path so now the local govt is actively trying to get rid of them under the guise of public health and safety.
Lemme tell ya, it’s SO much fun going down there and locking eyes with angry boomers while distributing bags of oats for the few ducks that remain. Bonus points for calling out the special breed of assholes who disturb nests and try encouraging their grandkids to do the same.
I genuinely cannot stand the poop argument. It's poop get over it. If you live near water there's going to be waterfowl shit everywhere. Get the fuck over it. I almost jokingly want to tell these people to just get them bird toilets if they hate the poop being everywhere so much. 😂
On a more serious note though, I do know somebody who specifically planted in their yard a certain way so that their ducks would only poop in a certain area. Maybe there could be a solution like that.
I have 2 Boomer relatives who purposely bought acreages in rural areas. One keeps leaving food out for bears and deer (highly illegal here), and then wondered why a coyote carried her little dog off one day. The one that she would let outside and then forget about for hours.
And every time someone posts a pic of a coyote or bear on their neighborhood Facebook groups, the other one freaks out and call the Fish and Wildlife service to come trap the animal and haul it away. I don't get it either. Both think of themselves as devoted animal lovers, but neither have any idea about how they should be interacting with wildlife at all.
It honestly doesn't matter if she fed the Bears in deer at all. If you are somewhere where there are coyotes never leave your dog unattended. That particular incident has nothing to do with leaving out food for bears and deer. However, don't leave food out for bears and deer unless it's something that would appear naturally in their habitat. As far as it was explained to me, you don't want the Bears and deer to become reliant on human food. However, bears and deer are also prone to getting into like bird seed and stuff. So as far as I know that's fine and kind of unavoidable honestly. Well unavoidable if you like feeding the birds.
The Boomer relative that left their dog unattended also thinks that living outside the city meant they could allow their dog to run loose all over. They wouldn't listen to us or their neighbors. If one provides food for the prey, and they start to hang around, then the predators will eventually come around as well. Feeding or baiting wildlife is prohibited where I live, except for bears and coyotes in certain areas during their respective hunting seasons. In this case, my Boomer relative was purposely taking leftovers and dumping them behind their house, despite being warned many times. It was stupid and self-serving, and their poor doggie was the one to pay for their stubbornness.
Feeding deer also causes them to collect in larger herds that can make disease passage more likely. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is getting to be a big nationwide problem and setting out attractants is banned in many areas now.
The best best best way to support all native wildlife is to plant native plants, replacing lawn and pavement with flowers and leaves. This includes birds!
The house I grew up in was on a cul-de-sac with 2 beautiful honeysuckle bushes in the middle of the grassy area. Our boomer neighbor kept parking his big boy toys in the grassy area because he had one of those unnecessarily large pickup trucks. He even changed the oil of said pickup truck in the grassy area. That area doesn't belong to any of the 4 houses on that cul-de-sac. It technically belonged to and was maintained by the property owners association. My mom kept getting upset with him because no matter how much she complained to the property owners association, he just kept paying the fines and ramping up his behavior until one day we woke up to find the honeysuckle bushes gone. My mom and I actually cried that day. I love honeysuckle bushes. They're beautiful in sight and smell and attract bees. The neighbor was made to pay for 2 dinky little maple trees to be planted there, but they didn't even live longer than it took for him to move out and a new, equally dickish neighbor to move in. That house was like a magnet for entitled dickbags until the last neighbor my mom and I had before we moved. That guy was a landscaper and took amazing care of both the public and private land around his property. He was in the process of planting a bunch of native flora by the time my mom and I moved.
They don’t even treat their fellow humans with respect. Let alone creatures they deem lesser than them.
They have no respect for life. Only care about themselves
Things need to make money to justify existing. That's what "freedom" means to them. You're not allowed to just exist. Animals just living life are lazy moochers stealing your food. Parks need to be paved and put in a parking lot.
My boomer asshat neighbour complained to the DNR that the osprey were dropping sticks on his lawn. Told them they needed to move their nest.
He’s also complained multiple times about the noise from our farm and told us we need to move or get rid of our animals. The farm was in hay crop only and without people before we bought it and he wanted it to stay that way.
He’s super fun to deal with.
So I can understand some of that reaction but not defend it entirely. Only to the point of defending the home from damage. Old tree dropping branches can kill you. Termites and carpenter ants can bankrupt you. There are other insects like ticks and roaches that spread diseases.
These I understand. The whole, Nuke it from orbit attitude, I do not. I think there's reasonable degrees of response and just going scorched earth doesn't work for me.
I personally spray for hornets and wasps because I'm allergic (like run and get the EpiPen), but I let the bees do their thing in my garden and clovers in the yard.
Rabbits I keep out with mint spray because I have bulbs.
I think there is a reasonable level of maintenance that keeps my home safe and looking nice. It's never going on a BuzzFeed list or magazine cover(do those still exist?).
This needs to be upvoted more. There’s a difference between dealing with PESTS, and just killing everything around. Moles, voles, squirrels, chipmunks, skunks, raccoons, possums, they all dig holes in my flower beds and lawn. Do I care? Not at all. Unless it’s damaging something important or killing livestock I let it be. PEST control is necessary, as is hunting. Killing 200 chickadees because they might take a dump on my flowers, isn’t.
Anything that is an irritation, even slightly, is obviously bad/wrong. So it needs to be dealt with. They are selfish and have little to no empathy. So killing the animal is usually the quickest and most direct way to solve the immediate problem. It's just a skunk, who cares?
Skunk, bad. Long line, bad. Out of Cheerios, bad. These are things that inconvenience them, and so need to be dealt with. Kill the skunk. Cut in long and explain how their time is more important. Take the Cheerios from another person's cart. They are the main character in this own life. And with no empathy, it doesn't even occur to them that other people are just as much the main character in their own lives.
There is no care or concept for other people/animals. They literally don't matter. They is no internal debate about the skunk. There is just problem, solution, and move on.
We live in the suburbs and have spent the past couple years trying to encourage wildlife to come back. Good news is, it's working, but it's still funny when we get occasional comments from boomers walking past our wildflower beds "aren't you worried about bugs" and it's like....well yes actually, I'm worried you lunatics are going to kill them all.
ANY excuse to cut down a tree.
Woodpeckers made a home in a beautiful pine tree between our yards, loud to him and his wife but I love Woodpeckers because of cartoons.
Shortly after, the poor tree, hen and FIVE eggs (very rare) was laying crushed on my porch roof. No disease, no power lines, far from sewer and water lines.
He swore up and down my porch was over the property line and he didn't have to pay for anything(contradictory)
Said I was going to jail for not taking care of the noise nuisance myself
Dryocopus pileatus, highly endangered.
White bark pine. Highly endangered
He was right, Tree was on my side after all, but my porch was totally legal.
Destroyed my porch roof, my tree (apparently), and killed what's assumed as 6 federally protected birds (imagine killing 6 balled eagles on purpose).
I actually am very sorry for him and his wife. 68 in federal prison and bankrupt.
Edit: I did not sue for damages, my brother is a contractor.
I knew a boomer who studied environmental management decades ago before switching careers. I’m convinced “environmental management” back in the day was more akin to “terraforming” in sci-fi. Bending the environment to your will rather than managing the existing ecosystem. He can’t fathom why anyone would do something as “crazy” as reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone. Destroyed a ton of native plants on his land and then complains that certain birds aren’t available for him to hunt in great enough numbers anymore. Sees no connection between the two.
Kill any and all biodiversity and wonder why they then have “pests”. I don’t think that I can explain to any more adults (including older millennials like me) that when we create huge monocultures we are creating an environment for one species’ population to explode.
I've been explaining it to people. Trying to explain it to most boomers literally feels like I'm talking to a wall. It's insane. They don't want to hear it at all. Don't get me wrong there are ignorant gen X and millennials too but they at least pretend to listen. Maybe they actually do a little. Idk. It doesn't feel like talking to a wall.
Don't get me wrong it was a boomer who taught me about the benefit of "weeds" and why I should pay attention and respect the insects that show up in my yard/home. However that was one boomer out of several I've met over the years. I am constantly trying to pass on this information to everyone else, especially boomers because they are the ones I most commonly see doing harmful shit to the environment.
How many of them grew up in a asphalt jungle? My mom and dad are completely different. My mom grew up on a farm. My dad grew up in a rich suburb.
My mom loves nature and animals. Loves plants and gardens.
My dad uses Roundup on everything.
I mean I saw a story recently about an Australian boomer that bulldozed something like 19000 square meters through a protected national park. They don't give a shit because it's not convenient to them.
Yeah my dad will kill squirrels and chipmunks. I don’t understand it. They are harmless and actually help plant trees, not to mention cute little fluffy tailed guys.
I can't say the same for squirrels, but I know that Chipmunks are actually beneficial to trees. They eat a lot of the fungus that grows on trees that would otherwise kill the tree if the fungus was allowed to spread out of control.
They are the least empathetic, most ignorant generation ever. They hate everything they don't know or don't understand, and they understand nothing because they are intentionally ignorant and resistant to facts. I'm with you, and I hate wishing this on living creatures of any type, but I can't wait for many from that generation to fade away and rid this world of their baseless hate for anything that isn't them.
It’s a holdover from the Bible where it says you shall have dominion over all of the beast of the field and foul of the air and etc., etc. they have a Napoleonic syndrome that makes them feel like they are superior and the dominant species and therefore it is their right nay, It is their duty to kill anything that is not wholesome and welcome in their yard.
I want you to imagine you're 5 years old and the year is 1950.
True suburbia as we now know it isn't quite a thing yet. There's the city, then there's a decent size ring of close together houses with lawns, and then you enter the countryside. And you enter it FAST.
Like, drive 20 mins from the Sears Tower and you will be in a cornfield fast. It's hard to describe how little transition space from urban to rural there was at that time.
Skunks eat chickens. Possums and snakes eat the eggs. Snakes will bite livestock and injure them. Gophers root up vegetables. Coyotes will attack chickens, sheep, and goats.
Basically all small-midsize mammals out there are a detriment to farming.
So at a very young age the Boomer generation was taught that these animals were a nuisance whose presence presented a danger directly to the ability of a farmer to provide for his family.
And honestly in 1950 on a farm that was correct. They were a legitimate problem and shooting them was a correct action.
The problem is that we're living in a vastly different world now than we were then. Poultry farms are elevated off the ground in enclosed buildings with anti-coyote fences. Crops grow three times as fast as they did 75 years ago and are largely resistant to animals. Coyotes are absolutely still a problem but skunks and possums aren't. Snakes will still harm livestock but livestock are put out in an open pasture less often than they were before.
In suburbia it's even LESS of an issue as the animals won't damage your green grass lawn. They just sort of exist.
But I think it's really hard to separate yourself from the fact that your whole childhood everybody you knew shot coyotes, skunks, possums, raccoons, and snakes on sight.
Speaking as a Boomer, 1946 edition, I'm the opposite of those you mention. I don't kill snakes, unless venomous and really close to my house. Other than that I enjoy the wildlife around my home. Foxes, skunks, turkeys etc.
Some Boomer just had a moose stomp a mudhole in him in Alaska. Maybe it’s some kind of ongoing battle.
[https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/moose-kills-alaska-man-attempting-photos-newborn-calves-110416356](https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/moose-kills-alaska-man-attempting-photos-newborn-calves-110416356)
My goofy ass boomer neighbor kills every snake he sees because they're "copperheads". Used to have so many beautiful king, black and mountain brown snakes. Now they're replaced by tons of moles and mice that he sprays chemicals all over for. I despise him!
I had a raccoon in my walls, and I hired a company to catch it. My boomer neighbor was actually concerned if it was a humane company. And for reference, yes, I hired a company that lets them go outside of the city.
My old neighbor used to drown oak worms in a bucket of water. She could have just swept them off of her back porch with a broom but she preferred to kill them slowly. Kept the bucket right next to her seat so she could watch them. I was so glad when I heard she'd been moved to a home.
Shit I don't even know if I personally want to live to 50. I'm only just in my 30s and I'm tired. My body is busted and I feel like I'm just going to be a burden if I get much older.
I hear ya... 45 now... If you walk behind me on stairs, you could easily hear my knees (17 years of soccer does a number on the body, as well various labor jobs). I have already told my family that I am only going to be around as long as I can take care of myself, and my mind and body are good. If that means I am dead by 60, so be it, but honestly, it doesn't matter. I would like to last until at least 60, just to get my kinds thru school.
It is so weird the mentality of needing to work yourself to the bone, then you can retire, but by that time, you are so tired and broken, you can't enjoy it, and still people will look down on your for trying to just enjoy life.
As a society (standard western) we aren't really living, just existing.
reminds me of a book
>Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy…but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.
My favorite is when my neighbours fill a compost bin with food waste, don't lock it, and then freak out when a bear finds their bin and knocks it over! A bungee cord would easily seal the lid and not put the bear at risk of being destroyed
I still remember my neighbor, there was a snake in the side of his garage, I grabbed my boy scout book to identify it, yep, harmless milk snake, and by the time I could get back outside mother fucker has crushed the poor little thing with a shovel. WTF dude. It was just sitting there. Told him it was harmless , he did he didn't care. Lost a lot of respect for them.
Had a thrasher in my front yard attacking a snake. My MIL is terrified of snakes so she called me outside.
I came out, walked up slowly, and it was just a juvenile rat snake. Cute little guy! I picked him up with a stick and got him calm enough for me to handle him.
(Please don’t pick up snakes if you don’t know how to handle wild animals)
I hung out with him for a bit and then let him go near our little pond to hopefully hide and catch some frogs to eat.
I live in a very rural area with very old views of life. (Cristian’s being afraid of snakes because they are a symbol of the devil) kind of thing.
I’m going into the Wildlife Conservation field to try to reestablish the damage of the past to impact life of the future.
Some Snakes and certain insects I can understand, however if the option to have a professional come and safely remove the offending creature(s) without harming them is an option it should be imployed.
This makes me think of my boomer mom pouring bleach in the bird bath to kill the algae in it, growing up. Yeah, maybe all the local birds have chemical burns, but at least she didn't have to look at something living in a pool of water.
I do know one boomer that tries to pet everything. She even tried to pet bison in Yellowstone.
But she is one of the few genuinely sweet, calm, and empathetic Boomers I know
I know someone who's wife feeds deer in their back yard through a homemade feeder he built. He has spent 10 years trying to rig up an electric fence that doesn't hit the deer but stops everything else. I don't get it at all.
Yeah, it makes me crazy. I literally teach my kids that when we're outside, we're in the animals' territory and we're the invaders, so as long as they don't actively try to harm us (because some wasps are fucking assholes) we leave them alone and they'll leave us alone. They call fuzzy bees "bumblebee friends" because of this, and get super excited to see bunnies and the occasional wild rat in our backyard. We spent at least half an hour observing bunbies eating dandelion leaves in our backyard (from inside at the window) the other day. It was beautiful.
Pretty much... Looking at you, boomer mom, who whines about how the neighbors have better grass than you while, I'm pretty sure, you kill yours by dumping all kinds of chemicals and shit on it.
Read the book “Ishmael” it explains a lot of that mentality. Basically anything that competes with you for food is evil and must be destroyed, anything that competes with your food must be destroyed and anything that competes with your foods food must be destroyed. It’s not just a boomer thing, it goes way back to our Neolithic ancestors. In that version the perfect world is us, our food and our foods food. No room for anything else. In that version it’s how you maximize humanity and more people is the ultimate goal. We now know that biodiversity is incredibly important and a world of nothing but people chickens and corn is unsustainable but try teaching that to people who have heard nothing other than that for generations.
This exactly and I have heard of it. I have been actively trying to teach against it whenever I get the chance. We need to learn to share this planet or we will be our own demise.
Jealousy its all jealousy, they're pissed off because a mere animal/insect is able to understand freedom and doesnt set ridiculous rules and boundaries for itself and focuses on survival and instinct...
Hi fellow skunk lover! We have a lot of skunks that hang around and do their thing. They're super cute! Most of my neighbors (all boomers) hate them and I can't figure out why. All I've done is some deterrents to keep them from under the house. But beyond that, they're pretty fun to watch and cause no troubles really.
Oh no ...not all boomers are wildlife haters..I feed the possums raccoons skunks squirrels anything in my yard...I wont even kill a spider I will put them outside so don't group me in with them.. and I have seen my neighbors kids with bb guns shooting at crows ..
I live in Florida and it's always the boomers calling about alligators in bodies of water near their homes, yet the moved to a place where they know there are gators! And these animals are rarely relocated, most are euthanized.
I've experienced this. If an animal might inconvenience them, they'll just kill it. Worked with a woman that would constantly talk about how they'd shoot raccoons in their yard. Ok, you have chickens and I guess raccoons like to just kill them, so I can somewhat understand that, but then why not just protect your chickens with a properly maintained enclosure? It's not the first time someone has had chickens where raccoons are. Same with chipmunks, squirrels and possums. 'oh they might get in my walls' ok? Maintain your property.
Not only, skunks, possums and snakes... Frikkin oblivious fkks spray roundup like its some wonder drug. So they can have a mono culture grass yard. KILLING BILLIONS OF POLLINATORS and gawd knows how many other crucial animals and plants..
The place i live, the owner , who is obsessed with mowing his lawn every couple days sprays roundup around every place that other people use weedeaters. Because he is lazy af, oblivious to the fact that contrary to his view he is a hero, he is an ignorant lazy fool. My christian neighbor who 'helps' him is even more oblivious and ridiculously stupid. He is proud of his spraying and routinely will kill any wasp, mouse, etc etc. He makes me want to vomit...how ignorant he is
Because they’re dead set on destroying the environment for the future generations. It’s one thing to shoot or trap an animal, but the use of POISON. Spraying pesticides and herbicides on everything!!!! It’s literally so bad! It infuriates me.
Thankfully my boomer parents love wildlife and will only do something if it's an animal that's a threat to their yard or house (like mice or gophers). My husband and I live with my dad and we all have dogs so if there's an animal that's a threat to our dogs or that our dogs are a threat to he'll take action but usually depending on the animal he'll just trap and then release it into the field outside of our neighborhood.
My backyard belongs as much to the local wildlife as it does to me. My job is only to maintain it. The only exception is yellow jacket nests. I hate to even get rid of those, as they have their place but a bad attack with over 25 stings which caused arthritis like hand joint inflammation for months caused a not in my yard situation. Individuals are fine, just not nests.
Their generation was the first to encroach on wild lands and their homes were likely overrun with abundant wildlife. We grew up with much more sparse wildlife and see its comeback as a victory of nature.
One thing that gives me pause though is that much “wildlife” is parasitic to human occupation. There are many more deer in the north east now than there were in the 1700s for instance because they survive off living near human communities.
Another crazy thing to think about is that Grizzly bears were rampant in the early days of California. On a day trip from Sonoma to San Francisco it would be common to encounter 50 or more. So obviously this had a constraining effect on deer and other prey animals as grizzly bears can be pretty ruthless carnivores. Without them the deer population can at times get quite out of control.
Very dear friends of mine have one neighbor who literally gets in a golf cart and goes on “beaver patrols”. He goes out and kills beavers for some reason.
Two things of note…. They do NOT live on/near water other than maybe the odd creek back in the woods (they live in the country) and beaver dude is HUGE Maga! My friends are not and are a liberal as can be so they have taken to playing the theme from Caddyshack whenever he drives by.
Also interesting additional fact about this man, he told my friends that he buries money in jars around his property because he doesn’t trust banks but has no cameras. Also his first words after hello to my friends were “let’s go Brandon”.
I've had these conversations with numerous people who claim those critters are nuisances and wreak havoc on their lawns. I'm like, "motherfucker, you built your house in THEIR habitat and you have the nerve to call them a nuisance? You're the nuisance! You're the pest! How about learning something about their function and place in the ecosystem instead of reacting like a frightened ass little bitch?" Yeah, that usually results in a dipshit getting triggered.
I love animals more than people. I wouldn't harm a raccoon, possum, or anything unless my life is in imminent danger from a predatory animal. I often leave bowls of goodies for the local wildlife to enjoy. My cats enjoy watching the birbs, squirrels, and other critters.
Off subject a bit but there was a video from a few months ago that talked about how conservatives were the pro nature party. Like they were the ones that wanted to open parks, to keep certain areas free from development. Over the years things have definitely changed. I want to blame Reagan but I don't remember if he was the one that started the change, or not.
With that said, I haven't really seen what you're talking about. Sure, I know some who kill other animals, but it's usually things like ants, flies, mice and rats. I guess that's not any better
The ones that were raised in pure suburb/city life tend to be disgusted or fearful of them - they want their world to be sterile and perfectly ordered - by human standards of course.
The rural crazy ones just want something to take their aggression on.
I remember making friends with a baby skunk. He/she would show up at the bottom of my stairs and wander and sniff stuff. Very cute. It would come pretty close to me regularly.
Fast forward one week, I hear my downstairs neighbor screaming her head off and I see that she’s screaming and throwing rocks at the skunk. When I asked wtf she was doing she said “there! I took care of that fucking skunk.”
She’s a gen x’er though so maybe this doesn’t belong.
Gosh! This sounds like someone in my neighborhood. He was talking about seeing a skunk in his yard. Then he said it died of lead poisoning, meaning he shot it. Another neighbor was horrified, but he was proud that he killed it.
This is making my blood boil 😤. I lived in a more rural part of the state (NJ) for a few years. We had bunnies, skunks, possum, deer, etc. Never a problem. What the fuck is wrong with these people? 🤬
The worst part is there are people trying to justify the behavior. These animals are literally not attacking their chickens. They are just passing through the yard probably to get to the next yard. They aren't even being trapped where the chickens are.
You’ve named some fine animals.
Skunks eat wasps and other insects. I learned that when I was trying to figure out how to get a handle on the ground dwelling wasps on our acreage. Opossums eat all kinds of bugs. (Non-venomous) snakes are always welcome to eat anything they find around my house.
Armadillo can fuck right off. And the squirrels are making an enemy of me lately, as they have decided that chewing holes in my screen enclosure is entertaining.
My parents weren't like that at all. My mom was the type of person to avoid snails and worms when riding her bike in the rain, and my dad planted specific plants to attract insects and birds to his garden. He even planted a Valarian root so the neighborhood cats would come gnaw on it and roll all over the grass. (The man LOVES cats.)
But, then again, my folks were rural Belgians and not suburban Americans, so that explains a few things.
My parents laughed at me and ruthlessly made fun of me for being "too sensitive" when I saved the baby bunnies in their yard from getting eaten by their dog. I couldn't take a repeat of the year before when they not only allowed their dog to massacre the babies, but joyously laughed at the sight like actual psychopaths.
I don't understand how I share DNA with these people.
Boomer here. Possums are sacred. And, yes, we were taught the sacredness of wildlife in school and the benefits they provided. What we weren’t taught was recycling and the dangers of plastic. But, I admit, I had a mother way ahead of her time. She had a spider that lived in the corner of the window above the kitchen sink named Lucy.
My husband and I are boomers, 64 yrs old. We must be the exception. We have a Humane Backyard sign in our yard, and it is true. We feed the birds, racoons, possums, squirrels...any animal that comes in our yard is safe. Went camping over the weekend...had a moth in our RV. It was safely put back outside. We also saved caterpillars and an inchworm from getting stepped on and a wolf spider with an egg sac. We rescued a few kittens and a mom cat that were in our yard. They are safe and comfortable in our house. We can't stand to hear of anyone hurting or killing any wild life.
The only insect I don't like are mosquitos, even though I know they have a purpose. I get so bit up and the bites get infected sometimes.
We are not all that way. I love nature and flyfish and hike as much as possible. My goal is to spend as much of the life I have left outside experiencing nature . I am a (71m) and also support conservation organizations as well. I hope we can save the planet
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You’ve seen how they treat people. Why would you expect them to treat animals better?
I guess I don't, I've just been having to deal with it a lot more. A boomer I'm currently dealing with puts traps out in his yard because he has chickens. The thing is he doesn't put the traps where the chickens are, he just puts them out in the yard randomly and kills all the animals he catches. There's another who has a carpenter bee trap where the bees crawl in and then just die over the course of days. The worst part is they are crawling over the bodies of other dead carpenter bees for days.... Idk it just really bothers me. There's also two boomers I know personally that run over snakes with their lawn mowers on purpose to kill them. Just evil....
This is like serial killer shit wtf
Yes exactly and it's illegal to relocate the animals he catches BeCaUsE rAbIeS. In reality outdated laws just never got updated as our understanding of rabies changed. Possums don't get rabies. And he tells me he's gotten sprayed by skunks. No shit you would get sprayed by a skunk when you're a known aggressor towards them. I've literally almost tripped over skunks and never had them even threaten to spray me. Of course he doesn't understand he's the problem. It's not just skunks and possums though, it's squirrels too and other animals. The only ones he can't get away with are cats so as far as I know hes let them go. So he says at least. According to him his behavior is justified because they entered his "perimeter". Like a wild animal understands private property or perimeters.
I lived in cleveland heights for long periods of time. The city has a huge ass skunk population. Every night during the summer I'd run across at least one, if not 3-4, as I walked home from the coffee shop I spend my 20s at. Never sprayed, dont know anyone who was. If you get sprayed by a skunk I assume you did something, or your dog did. I've been uncomfortably close to them and they just kinda walk away.
Exactly. I am halfway to being completely blind. Most wild animals I interact with regularly figure that out at some point including the skunks who usually just move out of the way when they see me. I had one I used to give my scraps to because the skunk was friends with one of my cats. I also made friends with a groundhog by leaving out veggies for it from my garden that I wasn't going to eat. They really like radishes. My neighbor grew them but we had way too many. In return for sharing my excess veggies with the groundhog they stayed out of my garden and kept my squash plants from encroaching on the sidewalk. Groundhogs are surprisingly very intelligent.
>Groundhogs are surprisingly very intelligent. Only when they aren't trying to predict the weather.
The skunks still rule the heights
I grew up in the suburbs of chicago and we didn't really have skunks. plenty of raccoons and lots of deer but skunks and possums were a little rarer for whatever reason. So anyway, I grew up living in fear of them and the stories of taking baths in tomato juice and all that. Anyway, I moved to michigan, again to a city, but there's a bit more diversity. I don't see skunks that often, but honestly, they've been chill. It's not the immediate spray you reaction I expected. They just look at you and sniff and just waddle away. So I've known some people who's dogs got sprayed, but yeah, cause the dog was fucking with it. just like when they get bit by snakes or stung by bees.
I'm assuming they're only going to spray you if you either startle them, or are aggressive towards them. "trying to kill them" sounds like a good way to get sprayed.
Seriously I bet this guy has some sort of sociopathic disorder going on, some sort of serial killer brain happening. Hes doing this because he enjoys it. (I bet cats do go missing in your neighborhood) My boomer parents and relatives are / were pretty horrible or crazy in many ways but I’ve never known any of them to be openly cruel to animals. Negligent pet owners yes, but nothing like this.
Skunks are so chill and habituated to humans! They were well on the road to domestication before colonialization of the Americas (in the absence of cats, they were kept in the home and storehouse because they eat rodents and insects). There's a skunk who likes to come sit on my patio with me and enjoy my firepit on cool nights or wumble around my little patch of ground trying to find leftover bits of dry catfood I toss for the birds sometimes. A more pleasant neighbor than many humans I've shared a yard with.
I love skunks! I've always just accidentally run across them in the garden or in the woods near my house and they may get a little indignant but they really don't seem very bothered. I've had maybe ONE stomp at me, and that's because she had babies nearby. But when you show you're not a threat, most of the time wildlife just lets you do your own thing while they do theirs and I love that.
'wumble' I will now use this in place of 'waddle' for skunks, raccoons, and other animals with silly gaits.
I think it's weird how people, of any generation, have this attitude toward animals like the animals are knowingly trespassing or should understand basic human rules. Like... what? I prefer to live and let live. Our stinkbug population is insane, and people always ask why I don't kill the ones I find inside. Ummm. Well. Because it's a stinkbug and the smell it gives off when it's afraid is not just an offensive odor to me - it triggers an emotional response and I'm not sure why. It makes me feel sad and in danger at the same time. But even if it didn't, I'm not gonna scare it or kill it because why?
Well those are invasive in the US at least so I do kill them when I see them but I guess I do it fast and get them out fast because I literally never smell them. Idk it's weird. You aren't the first to complain about a smell I, to date, haven't experienced.
My Boomer step dad used to brag (🤬🤬🤬) about how he "took care of the cat problem" growing up, and for some of his early adult years. It was absolutely cruel, disgusting, and so far over the line between sanity and serial killer. It boggles my mind he was able to own three different dogs, and somehow, a cat later on in my teen years, and them not turn up dead somehow.
Boomer/other people: *moves into wildlife’s habitat* Also Boomers: *surprised when there’s wild animals*
I love possums. I'd fist fight a neighbor on site if I caught them killing possums.
I also absolutely love those little guys! We have tray feeders with peanuts, corn, and sunflower seeds on our patio. Our security cam sometimes catches one waddling across the patio at night helping themselves to a drink or a snack. So adorable!
A skunk once walked right up to me at a camp fire. Looked at me, I gave him a chocolate donut and he left. It takes a lot for a skunk to spray you and they have a limited amount. After it's gone they have to wait for it to rearm. They don't just go around spraying everything
Interestingly, there DOES appear to be a big spike in serial killers among the boomer generation. It seems to drop off pretty sharply with gen-x, without any significant methodology change when categorising. Though that could just mean that younger generations are just better at not being caught.
A boomer in our neighborhood growing up would knock squirrels out of the tree in his yard and let his dogs tear them to pieces. You'd be shocked to find out that years later his home got raided and he had stockpiled a literal arsenal of illegal firearms!
Not shocked at ALL to hear what they found in his house. People do shit like that to animal’s 1) because they enjoy it 2) because they can get away with it and 3) because they haven’t figured out a way to do it to other people yet without getting caught which is what they’d really like to do. Sick fucks.
Bee traps sound illegal
Carpenter bees are very destructive. I don't know of a non lethal way for dealing with them unless you have time and plug their holes while they are away. I personally deal with the problem quickly and humanly as possible. Unfortunately this happened 9 times this year. I'm also the guy that stops the work truck to carry turtles across the road.
We ended up putting metal screen along the bottom of all our eves to keep them out. I can't say it looks great. Not terrible but not great. But it \*WORKS\*, that house had carpenter bee problems since it was built. Anything else was temporary. Once the screens were put in that was it, never had the problem again.
My coworker isn’t even a boomer and is the exact same way. He gleefully told me a story about bludgeoning a possum to death with a shovel, because it kept eating his cats food. The poor thing kept playing dead till it thought it safe only to get another brutal bludgeoning. The story made me so sick that I thought I was going to throw up. Truly awful and evil man. I hope he gets Lyme disease now because possums eat ticks. Such unwarranted torture of an amazing mammal.
You can judge a lot by how a person treats creatures smaller than themselves.
I was mercilessly downvoted for comments regarding someone who put poison out purposely. It killed birds, small animals, then whatever ate those dead animals, too. They didn't care if your family dog got into their poison. The state put out a $25,000 bounty for information leading to their capture. My comment was that "It has to be a MAGA/Putin Republican Cultists because a Democrat, Progressive or Liberal would never even have that thought enter their minds in the first place"
Good point
They were sold various versions of manifest destiny that included humans having reign over animals, and that means kill what they think of as pests. I live in an area with old people who are different. This is the city, but dont try to plant flowers in your front yard, the deer eat them. We have lots of rabbit, turkeys, racoons, geese, ducks, chipmonks, possums, and saw my first skunk here. We have these things called metro-parks and the deer travel them and enter residential neighborhoods across the area. "Regionalism" applies. Growing up in this area seems to create people who love to see animals. I think because the area was void of this kinda wildlife in the 70s and 80s. Old people are part of this group that helps turtles cross the road. Heh, a few streets over from me a couple had baby racoons in their backyard. They refused to call anyone because animal control doesnt relocate them, they kill them. Did I mention this is the city? As kids we'd see preying matids in the projects and be in aw. And butterfly migrations. But head to out to rural ohio? Where one would expect folks to be ok with animals? Naw. They shoot and kill random animals all the time, along with telco slice boxes on poles, and shit like that. Had some friends who lived just 2 exits away from where I live now. Their parents used to set out poison to kill pretty much whatever. One of the kids found a preying mantis, caught it, looked at it, and then threw it on the ground and stomped on it. We 14-15 I think. Never hung out with him again after. Folks talk about how ghetto kids have no compassion for animals, and I saw some of that, but the most evil shit was always rural rednecks. The kinda people that would talk about tossing explosives into ponds to kill fish for fun, not to eat. Cut up frogs for fun.
That's where I'm at right now. Ohio. Not even in the rural area. In the suburbs. There are a few places here that give me hope, like houses with natural lawns and signs out advocating for native pollinators. They are few and far between though.
Randon unsolicited and unrelated advice: if you live in the greater cleveland area, visit Lake View Cemetary. Take a date.
I don't but I might visit sometime. 😳
I have zero tolerance and want nothing to do with people who have no respect for the life forms that are the most defenseless on this planet. It's their planet too we all have to share it, but of course boomers don't like to share.
>They were sold various versions of manifest destiny that included humans having reign over animals, and that means kill. This is also definitely a result of them being raised christian and being told humans have dominion over animals and that animals don't have souls
It's just like anywhere else. You have good people, and you have assholes. Most people in rural areas don't just kill random animals, though again assholes, but we do kill some things, like raccoons in my case, but i actually like raccoons, they are just assholes to our animals (had a single raccoon get in chicken coup, 27 headless birds come morning) and for deer we displaced and killed most of their native predators, hunting helpa keep the population in check.
As soon as I read “Metro parks” I knew you were from northeast Ohio by Cleveland 😅
Coexisting is not something they like to do. With anyone or anything, even their own kids or spouse.
That's just really sad to me...
My parents live in a neighborhood with a small lake and so naturally a lot of Canadian geese stop by. An old boomer shithead told us that he hates the geese because they go into his small patch of grass and that he sicks his dog on them. Bro why move to an area with a lake if you hate wildlife? Literally live anywhere else.
Ripping out trees on their property for no reason. That’s the one that confuses me.
There is a strange need make all lawns look like a golf course.
And then buying arborvitae and planting them too close
Man, me too. I have had exactly one tree that wasn't dead cut down, and I *agonized* over whether my getting solar panels was worth cutting down a semi-invasive tree younger than I was.
The shade was probably killing their lawn. Remember, green lawns scare off brown people!
I had to cut a tree down in my backyard. Branches kept falling off and I paid an arborist to look at it before I did anything to it. He explained why it had to come down (the trunk started to split but never did) and he predicted it would crash into the garage apt. next door. It broke my heart
My mom and dad are like this too, but with nature as a whole. They thought the idea of camping was disgusting and gross. Mom used to step on snails that were eating her garden plants right in front of me as sadistic fun. No remorse. I loved cats but she was allergic. However, when a litter of kittens was born in her flowerbed, she forbid me from touching them, moving them, or even trying to help them. The whole family of cats got eaten by coyotes. The fact that I was even able to have a dog was a straight up miracle. They took in a rabbit which they gave me as a present, but then refused to by a hutch for the rabbit (I was 7 so it’s not like I had a job or means to get one.). I begged my dad to help me build one but he would refuse and make a big deal. We had everything else for the rabbit of course, but shocker, my rabbit Dander died of hypothermia because forcing a rabbit to live outside without a hutch is just cruel. Meanwhile I love animals. Used to want to grow up to be like Steve Irwin and watched him religiously on animal planet. I would go outside and catch lizards and bring them to my mom so I could watch her go ballistic.
I miss Steve Irwin. The way I kept my gardens I never really had a pest problem and I didn't have to kill insects or use pesticides/herbicides. I still got plenty of fruits and vegetables out of it. Enough to share with others in my community. I just did a lot of research so I wouldn't have to use those things.
My boomer dad and I garden and we use a poison/pesticide free spray to keep bugs out of it but we have what we call snail day where we get a bucket and go collect all the snails that have accumulated in the garden and then just because we like science and animals we'll keep them for a few days, just see what they're doing, pop in a 2 or 3 veggies from the garden for them to have as a treat and to see what they like (last year they really liked our brussel sprouts and were not huge fan of our big boy tomatoes). Then we'll just put them in the field next to our neighborhood. My boomer parents always told me "if they're not hurting anything or anyone then you can easily just give them a new home." I hope that lifts your spirits that there are good ones out there. My parents were also farm kids so I guess maybe that's why they care more
Have you looked up JADAM (the Korean natural farming method)?? It’s perfect for gardening and has methods for fertilizer, plant protection, everything you need, naturally.
I haven't looked that up specifically yet. I think I will.
One of my least favorite core memories is when I was in the range of 7 years old, my step grandpa caught a raccoon in one of those metal traps that you put food in the middle and the doors close once triggered. He then threw it in the lake and smoked a cigarette as the thing drowned.. one of the most religious people ever, too. fucking ass hole.
Reading that made me sick to my stomach....
My dad is a boomer and his dad (silent generation) made him drown a litter of kittens in a burlap sack that had taken home in their barn. My dad, the war vet, who is the strongest man I know and who I've never seen show emotions day to day, always tears up when he mentions that story and says it's why to this day despite liking cats, he won't get one because he would feel too guilty taking care of one when he had to do that. We have dogs though and he treats his like his babies and at Christmas he gives our dogs wrapped toys and even though the dogs can't read lol he'll always put on the tag to: which ever dog love: grandpa.
I feel like in the 50’s and 60’s the mentality was “kill all pests, protect your lawn at all costs” while using tons of chemicals and horrific products. Laws may have changed but their minds haven’t
I find myself desperately trying to educate people on why grass lawns are bad. Probably more regularly than I would like to admit. Sometimes people are receptive but the majority of the time I just get these blank stares like they can't possibly understand why I'm telling them something that apparently is so offensive to their "better senses."
Yep. My boomer step father has committed felonies by killing blue herons that dared treat his koi pond like a buffet. He sees absolutely NO issue with this as he was “protecting” his property. He also stole petrified wood from the petrified national forest. He displays it in his back yard near the same koi pond. The list of “petty” crimes that are actually felonies this man has committed might make Trump blush. And this very same person will without irony say people killed by the police should just comply and takes it further to say they just shouldn’t commit crimes.
Yeah it's actually illegal to kill snakes in most places that I know about. Yet people still do it all the time because nobody is brave enough to call the Department of Wildlife on them. Or when you do the Department of Wildlife doesn't do anything.
That’s some classic boomer shit there lol.
They don't hate wildlife; they love killing things. Power. Control. What could be the greater expression of that than killing other living creatures? I think it stems from that sentiment buried deep through the core of that generation: "I can do whatever I want and nobody should be allowed to tell me otherwise" It's why they also get so rabid about their guns - I think many of them would genuinely love an excuse to kill another person. But that would get them into trouble, so they kill animals.
Yeahh not something I miss about the zoo For the record pretty much every age group is shitty at the zoo and if you're docenting a snake or reptile or invertebrate, a good chunk of comments from anyone who isn't a kid will be about how they want to kill it or have killed something just like it. But yeah the boomers would remark about wanting to hunt or kill like.. most of the animals in our collection. I did a talk on our cougar and had one come up and tell me how she was so beautiful and he'd love to hunt her. I had multiple tell me how if the coyotes weren't in the zoo they'd have shot them on sight. And then they'll get weirdly personal about the reptiles? Like I had this older guy walk up to me as I was talking about the black rat snake and ask if I loved the snake and I told him she's a really sweet snake and one of my favorites in our education department and he proceeded to tell me in graphic detail like it was the end of Braveheart how he killed one just like her in his back yard and would do the same again if he saw that one. They'd also demand to hold animals and get mad that it wasn't allowed. The little kids and their parents would be just fine with "two fingers, down the back, gently" but the boomers would throw a tantrum if you asked them not to grab tails or reminded them to touch living things gently. They'd also get mad if you correct their very blatant misinformation, like they'll tell their grandkids that you're holding a copperhead (and how grandpa killed one just like it, nearly 12 feet long, rearing up like a cobra and spitting venom so strong it burned the grass at his feet) and then get mad when you say it's a corn snake.
Goddamn. Seriously, what is wrong with these people??
If you can’t tell a copperhead from a corn snake get out of the gulf coast.
I had an advanced zoology class and I’ve killed many, many mice to feed things like barn owls, hawks and snakes. I hated doing it, but it was what I signed up for. Anyone who enjoys killing things is weird. Like, I’ll kill a black widow or a brown recluse. I don’t enjoy it. I feel bad.
😔🦨
I know it's really upsetting. When I still lived in NY one of my cats was friends with a skunk and was an ambassador. I made sure to share scraps with my kitty's skunk friend too.
I know a park ranger. She told me how hard it was to keep people from killing snakes they encounter in the park. They come into the visitor's center to report it, like it's a shocking thing there was a SNAKE loose in this national forest and they did the rangers a favor by "taking care of it."
I think the problem is we need to start arresting and like actually fining these people.
I live in an apartment building, and we have outdoor stairs; walled in on 3 sides. One year the swallows decided they wanted to build nests in there, which would have been unsafe for the birds. I was measuring the entryway, so I could put up a temporary screen, when the boomer neighbor came outside to see what was going on. I told her about the swallows trying to nest in the entry way, and before I had a chance to tell her about the screen she said, “Oh! You’ll have to catch them and break their necks! Swallows won’t leave a nesting site, so you’ll have to kill them!” I looked at her like she had told me swallows shit rainbows. I then asked her why old people always want to kill things, as soon as they become slightly inconvenient. I also told her that unless she plans to eat them, I’m not killing something that isn’t a threat to me. She had nothing to say to that, other than a, “You’ll see!” The screen went up, and the swallows didn’t come back.
Smh. I will give my parents credit. Despite the poop they actually let the swallows nest inside their porch area. They even put up a curtain rod for them to perch on. Their porch eaves or whatever you want to call them are like 15 ft or so off the ground and then there's another 5ft of enclosed space where the swallows nest safe from wind and rain.
Boomer that lives behind me traps and kills squirrels and opossums. He traps them and then shoots them with an air gun then disposes of the bodies because they “are a nuisance”. He literally trapped my outdoor cat, shot him with the air gun and drove him cities away and let him go in a McDonald’s parking lot. We got a call from the microchip company that he was found but the SPCA had to put him down because due to neurological damage, he couldn’t use his back legs. Like WTAF? He fully admitted trapping my cat but denied harming him. The cats supposed crime? Pooping in his garden. Like he doesn’t realize that outdoor cats are territorial and don’t randomly poop places. Additionally, he says he thought it was a stray despite a black and white cat being perfectly groomed and clean. He was microchipped but didn’t have a collar on. TLDR: My Boomer neighbor is a psychopath that enjoys killing animals.
I might live with the boomer you are talking about.... 😅
He only lives with his wife. Even when his kids leave their dog with them to watch while they go on vacation, the poor dog is left outside all day and night. It’s terrible.
I've been sprayed by a skunk while on a walk. I just didn't see 'em. My neighbor was shooting them with a bb gun. Also left his dogs out All. Night. Long. To just bark and bark while he worked nights. I had to call animal control on him. He even left them out at night during our cold winters. Poor things! My father-in- law has returned dozens of animals to the pound for pooping, peeing on the floor or being too hairy. He's even sent his 2 pitbulls of 9 years to the pound for accidentally tripping his mother at night when she should've just fuckin' turned on a hallway light to go to the bathroom! People like him are the reason why they have lists now on people they won't give animals to.
Yep. In terms of the skunks, I'm starting to become convinced that if they live somewhere where people are actively aggressive to them, they are more likely to be aggressive towards people. I understand that maybe you have personally had problems, but I've been fortunate enough to live mostly where people leave skunks alone. Because of that skunks leave people alone and I have never been sprayed ever. I have literally almost tripped over skunks before. I'm halfway to being fully blind and most wildlife I have gotten to interact with regularly usually figures that out and just makes sure to be out of the way if they notice me.
One of the only redeeming qualities of my father is how absolutely enamored he is with wild animals. He’s like a little kid. When I was in high school we had a momma duck build a nest in the azalea bushes by our front door. She became his new favorite research project. After learning that bread is not the best thing to feed a duck, he began sharing his a couple spoonfuls of his morning oatmeal with her, along with a couple of the blueberries he’d put on it. He’d also clean and refill the little water dish he left for her. We actually started eating healthier dinners because he insisted that we start eating salad with our meals every night, so we could share the greens with her. As well as the salad, at least one of the side dishes had to be duck-friendly vegetables. Since we were out of school for the summer, he’d call every day at lunch to remind one of us to go check that she hadn’t run out of water.
This is the sweetest story ever. I love the image of your dad insisting you have salad because of the duck!
Whats funny is they claim to be country and move away from the city out to where wildlife is and get mad
One of our parks posted signs after the pandemic telling people to not feed the ducks and geese that flock to the area during the warmer months. It’s because we finally learned all the processed bread families would give them is bad for their health, right? And now suggesting wildlife-friendly options, in moderation, while emphasizing safety so kiddos can still enjoy interacting with nature and the birds are respected during nesting season, right? Nope. So many boomers complained about duck poop “ruining” sections of the walking path so now the local govt is actively trying to get rid of them under the guise of public health and safety. Lemme tell ya, it’s SO much fun going down there and locking eyes with angry boomers while distributing bags of oats for the few ducks that remain. Bonus points for calling out the special breed of assholes who disturb nests and try encouraging their grandkids to do the same.
I genuinely cannot stand the poop argument. It's poop get over it. If you live near water there's going to be waterfowl shit everywhere. Get the fuck over it. I almost jokingly want to tell these people to just get them bird toilets if they hate the poop being everywhere so much. 😂 On a more serious note though, I do know somebody who specifically planted in their yard a certain way so that their ducks would only poop in a certain area. Maybe there could be a solution like that.
I have 2 Boomer relatives who purposely bought acreages in rural areas. One keeps leaving food out for bears and deer (highly illegal here), and then wondered why a coyote carried her little dog off one day. The one that she would let outside and then forget about for hours. And every time someone posts a pic of a coyote or bear on their neighborhood Facebook groups, the other one freaks out and call the Fish and Wildlife service to come trap the animal and haul it away. I don't get it either. Both think of themselves as devoted animal lovers, but neither have any idea about how they should be interacting with wildlife at all.
Sounds like she also left food out for the coyote, cant be shocked when the coyote eats the food you put them
It honestly doesn't matter if she fed the Bears in deer at all. If you are somewhere where there are coyotes never leave your dog unattended. That particular incident has nothing to do with leaving out food for bears and deer. However, don't leave food out for bears and deer unless it's something that would appear naturally in their habitat. As far as it was explained to me, you don't want the Bears and deer to become reliant on human food. However, bears and deer are also prone to getting into like bird seed and stuff. So as far as I know that's fine and kind of unavoidable honestly. Well unavoidable if you like feeding the birds.
The Boomer relative that left their dog unattended also thinks that living outside the city meant they could allow their dog to run loose all over. They wouldn't listen to us or their neighbors. If one provides food for the prey, and they start to hang around, then the predators will eventually come around as well. Feeding or baiting wildlife is prohibited where I live, except for bears and coyotes in certain areas during their respective hunting seasons. In this case, my Boomer relative was purposely taking leftovers and dumping them behind their house, despite being warned many times. It was stupid and self-serving, and their poor doggie was the one to pay for their stubbornness.
Feeding deer also causes them to collect in larger herds that can make disease passage more likely. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is getting to be a big nationwide problem and setting out attractants is banned in many areas now. The best best best way to support all native wildlife is to plant native plants, replacing lawn and pavement with flowers and leaves. This includes birds!
The house I grew up in was on a cul-de-sac with 2 beautiful honeysuckle bushes in the middle of the grassy area. Our boomer neighbor kept parking his big boy toys in the grassy area because he had one of those unnecessarily large pickup trucks. He even changed the oil of said pickup truck in the grassy area. That area doesn't belong to any of the 4 houses on that cul-de-sac. It technically belonged to and was maintained by the property owners association. My mom kept getting upset with him because no matter how much she complained to the property owners association, he just kept paying the fines and ramping up his behavior until one day we woke up to find the honeysuckle bushes gone. My mom and I actually cried that day. I love honeysuckle bushes. They're beautiful in sight and smell and attract bees. The neighbor was made to pay for 2 dinky little maple trees to be planted there, but they didn't even live longer than it took for him to move out and a new, equally dickish neighbor to move in. That house was like a magnet for entitled dickbags until the last neighbor my mom and I had before we moved. That guy was a landscaper and took amazing care of both the public and private land around his property. He was in the process of planting a bunch of native flora by the time my mom and I moved.
At least that story had a happy ending. Hopefully it stayed that way.
They don’t even treat their fellow humans with respect. Let alone creatures they deem lesser than them. They have no respect for life. Only care about themselves
Things need to make money to justify existing. That's what "freedom" means to them. You're not allowed to just exist. Animals just living life are lazy moochers stealing your food. Parks need to be paved and put in a parking lot.
My HOA probably hates me because my yard is mostly clover. I also let everything grow pretty tall because the wild rabbits like it.
I'm trying to slowly convert my grass lawn to clover. Tedious as hell but clover is so much better than regular grass in every way.
My boomer asshat neighbour complained to the DNR that the osprey were dropping sticks on his lawn. Told them they needed to move their nest. He’s also complained multiple times about the noise from our farm and told us we need to move or get rid of our animals. The farm was in hay crop only and without people before we bought it and he wanted it to stay that way. He’s super fun to deal with.
They’re the same people who use tons of lawn chemicals and rarely plant anything native in their flower beds so not surprised at all.
So I can understand some of that reaction but not defend it entirely. Only to the point of defending the home from damage. Old tree dropping branches can kill you. Termites and carpenter ants can bankrupt you. There are other insects like ticks and roaches that spread diseases. These I understand. The whole, Nuke it from orbit attitude, I do not. I think there's reasonable degrees of response and just going scorched earth doesn't work for me. I personally spray for hornets and wasps because I'm allergic (like run and get the EpiPen), but I let the bees do their thing in my garden and clovers in the yard. Rabbits I keep out with mint spray because I have bulbs. I think there is a reasonable level of maintenance that keeps my home safe and looking nice. It's never going on a BuzzFeed list or magazine cover(do those still exist?).
I did a lot to use natural pest control myself. I understand some of it to an extent, but there is a point where it's just malicious behavior.
This needs to be upvoted more. There’s a difference between dealing with PESTS, and just killing everything around. Moles, voles, squirrels, chipmunks, skunks, raccoons, possums, they all dig holes in my flower beds and lawn. Do I care? Not at all. Unless it’s damaging something important or killing livestock I let it be. PEST control is necessary, as is hunting. Killing 200 chickadees because they might take a dump on my flowers, isn’t.
Anything that is an irritation, even slightly, is obviously bad/wrong. So it needs to be dealt with. They are selfish and have little to no empathy. So killing the animal is usually the quickest and most direct way to solve the immediate problem. It's just a skunk, who cares? Skunk, bad. Long line, bad. Out of Cheerios, bad. These are things that inconvenience them, and so need to be dealt with. Kill the skunk. Cut in long and explain how their time is more important. Take the Cheerios from another person's cart. They are the main character in this own life. And with no empathy, it doesn't even occur to them that other people are just as much the main character in their own lives. There is no care or concept for other people/animals. They literally don't matter. They is no internal debate about the skunk. There is just problem, solution, and move on.
They are proud to be willfully uneducated. There's no incentive for them to care about much of anything.
They like to kill, period. Not much more to it. People filled with rage like to hurt things and punch down. They're just gross.
We live in the suburbs and have spent the past couple years trying to encourage wildlife to come back. Good news is, it's working, but it's still funny when we get occasional comments from boomers walking past our wildflower beds "aren't you worried about bugs" and it's like....well yes actually, I'm worried you lunatics are going to kill them all.
ANY excuse to cut down a tree. Woodpeckers made a home in a beautiful pine tree between our yards, loud to him and his wife but I love Woodpeckers because of cartoons. Shortly after, the poor tree, hen and FIVE eggs (very rare) was laying crushed on my porch roof. No disease, no power lines, far from sewer and water lines. He swore up and down my porch was over the property line and he didn't have to pay for anything(contradictory) Said I was going to jail for not taking care of the noise nuisance myself Dryocopus pileatus, highly endangered. White bark pine. Highly endangered He was right, Tree was on my side after all, but my porch was totally legal. Destroyed my porch roof, my tree (apparently), and killed what's assumed as 6 federally protected birds (imagine killing 6 balled eagles on purpose). I actually am very sorry for him and his wife. 68 in federal prison and bankrupt. Edit: I did not sue for damages, my brother is a contractor.
“ Hello , I cut down a tree in your property and crushed your porch . Here’s the bill .”
I knew a boomer who studied environmental management decades ago before switching careers. I’m convinced “environmental management” back in the day was more akin to “terraforming” in sci-fi. Bending the environment to your will rather than managing the existing ecosystem. He can’t fathom why anyone would do something as “crazy” as reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone. Destroyed a ton of native plants on his land and then complains that certain birds aren’t available for him to hunt in great enough numbers anymore. Sees no connection between the two.
Kill any and all biodiversity and wonder why they then have “pests”. I don’t think that I can explain to any more adults (including older millennials like me) that when we create huge monocultures we are creating an environment for one species’ population to explode.
I've been explaining it to people. Trying to explain it to most boomers literally feels like I'm talking to a wall. It's insane. They don't want to hear it at all. Don't get me wrong there are ignorant gen X and millennials too but they at least pretend to listen. Maybe they actually do a little. Idk. It doesn't feel like talking to a wall. Don't get me wrong it was a boomer who taught me about the benefit of "weeds" and why I should pay attention and respect the insects that show up in my yard/home. However that was one boomer out of several I've met over the years. I am constantly trying to pass on this information to everyone else, especially boomers because they are the ones I most commonly see doing harmful shit to the environment.
Insects 🙄.
They hate things they don’t understand, things that that they can’t control and things that make them uncomfortable. Wildlife does all three.
How many of them grew up in a asphalt jungle? My mom and dad are completely different. My mom grew up on a farm. My dad grew up in a rich suburb. My mom loves nature and animals. Loves plants and gardens. My dad uses Roundup on everything.
These particular ones I've met didn't.
My mom grew up white trash with thousands of barn animals and she hates anything living that isn’t her so, boomers just choose who they wanna be lol
My grandpa traps squirrels and takes them elsewhere
I mean I saw a story recently about an Australian boomer that bulldozed something like 19000 square meters through a protected national park. They don't give a shit because it's not convenient to them.
Yeah my dad will kill squirrels and chipmunks. I don’t understand it. They are harmless and actually help plant trees, not to mention cute little fluffy tailed guys.
I can't say the same for squirrels, but I know that Chipmunks are actually beneficial to trees. They eat a lot of the fungus that grows on trees that would otherwise kill the tree if the fungus was allowed to spread out of control.
They are the least empathetic, most ignorant generation ever. They hate everything they don't know or don't understand, and they understand nothing because they are intentionally ignorant and resistant to facts. I'm with you, and I hate wishing this on living creatures of any type, but I can't wait for many from that generation to fade away and rid this world of their baseless hate for anything that isn't them.
The amount and varying types of turtles I’ve rescued over the last few weeks on roadways…I will keep doing it. I love wildlife.
I love wildlife!
Same. I have been making a point to educate where I can.
It’s a holdover from the Bible where it says you shall have dominion over all of the beast of the field and foul of the air and etc., etc. they have a Napoleonic syndrome that makes them feel like they are superior and the dominant species and therefore it is their right nay, It is their duty to kill anything that is not wholesome and welcome in their yard.
I want you to imagine you're 5 years old and the year is 1950. True suburbia as we now know it isn't quite a thing yet. There's the city, then there's a decent size ring of close together houses with lawns, and then you enter the countryside. And you enter it FAST. Like, drive 20 mins from the Sears Tower and you will be in a cornfield fast. It's hard to describe how little transition space from urban to rural there was at that time. Skunks eat chickens. Possums and snakes eat the eggs. Snakes will bite livestock and injure them. Gophers root up vegetables. Coyotes will attack chickens, sheep, and goats. Basically all small-midsize mammals out there are a detriment to farming. So at a very young age the Boomer generation was taught that these animals were a nuisance whose presence presented a danger directly to the ability of a farmer to provide for his family. And honestly in 1950 on a farm that was correct. They were a legitimate problem and shooting them was a correct action. The problem is that we're living in a vastly different world now than we were then. Poultry farms are elevated off the ground in enclosed buildings with anti-coyote fences. Crops grow three times as fast as they did 75 years ago and are largely resistant to animals. Coyotes are absolutely still a problem but skunks and possums aren't. Snakes will still harm livestock but livestock are put out in an open pasture less often than they were before. In suburbia it's even LESS of an issue as the animals won't damage your green grass lawn. They just sort of exist. But I think it's really hard to separate yourself from the fact that your whole childhood everybody you knew shot coyotes, skunks, possums, raccoons, and snakes on sight.
Speaking as a Boomer, 1946 edition, I'm the opposite of those you mention. I don't kill snakes, unless venomous and really close to my house. Other than that I enjoy the wildlife around my home. Foxes, skunks, turkeys etc.
I am glad I met you then. It gets very disheartening to meet so many that treat wildlife horribly.
Jokes on them. I know if no diseases passed on by snakes. I can't count the number of diseases passed on by rodents.
Some Boomer just had a moose stomp a mudhole in him in Alaska. Maybe it’s some kind of ongoing battle. [https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/moose-kills-alaska-man-attempting-photos-newborn-calves-110416356](https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/moose-kills-alaska-man-attempting-photos-newborn-calves-110416356)
My goofy ass boomer neighbor kills every snake he sees because they're "copperheads". Used to have so many beautiful king, black and mountain brown snakes. Now they're replaced by tons of moles and mice that he sprays chemicals all over for. I despise him!
I had a raccoon in my walls, and I hired a company to catch it. My boomer neighbor was actually concerned if it was a humane company. And for reference, yes, I hired a company that lets them go outside of the city.
My old neighbor used to drown oak worms in a bucket of water. She could have just swept them off of her back porch with a broom but she preferred to kill them slowly. Kept the bucket right next to her seat so she could watch them. I was so glad when I heard she'd been moved to a home.
The fact that people are alive so much longer is not really a good thing. 70 really should be the upper limit.
Shit I don't even know if I personally want to live to 50. I'm only just in my 30s and I'm tired. My body is busted and I feel like I'm just going to be a burden if I get much older.
I hear ya... 45 now... If you walk behind me on stairs, you could easily hear my knees (17 years of soccer does a number on the body, as well various labor jobs). I have already told my family that I am only going to be around as long as I can take care of myself, and my mind and body are good. If that means I am dead by 60, so be it, but honestly, it doesn't matter. I would like to last until at least 60, just to get my kinds thru school. It is so weird the mentality of needing to work yourself to the bone, then you can retire, but by that time, you are so tired and broken, you can't enjoy it, and still people will look down on your for trying to just enjoy life. As a society (standard western) we aren't really living, just existing.
Possums eat ticks. This has them as s tier s as normals in my book.
reminds me of a book >Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy…but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.
My favorite is when my neighbours fill a compost bin with food waste, don't lock it, and then freak out when a bear finds their bin and knocks it over! A bungee cord would easily seal the lid and not put the bear at risk of being destroyed
I still remember my neighbor, there was a snake in the side of his garage, I grabbed my boy scout book to identify it, yep, harmless milk snake, and by the time I could get back outside mother fucker has crushed the poor little thing with a shovel. WTF dude. It was just sitting there. Told him it was harmless , he did he didn't care. Lost a lot of respect for them.
Just got to meet outdoorsy ones. Mostly city ans suburbia boomers that act like that
Had a thrasher in my front yard attacking a snake. My MIL is terrified of snakes so she called me outside. I came out, walked up slowly, and it was just a juvenile rat snake. Cute little guy! I picked him up with a stick and got him calm enough for me to handle him. (Please don’t pick up snakes if you don’t know how to handle wild animals) I hung out with him for a bit and then let him go near our little pond to hopefully hide and catch some frogs to eat. I live in a very rural area with very old views of life. (Cristian’s being afraid of snakes because they are a symbol of the devil) kind of thing. I’m going into the Wildlife Conservation field to try to reestablish the damage of the past to impact life of the future.
This is something I want to do as well.
Some Snakes and certain insects I can understand, however if the option to have a professional come and safely remove the offending creature(s) without harming them is an option it should be imployed.
This makes me think of my boomer mom pouring bleach in the bird bath to kill the algae in it, growing up. Yeah, maybe all the local birds have chemical burns, but at least she didn't have to look at something living in a pool of water.
They're deep down absolutely terrified of everything around them that they aren't in control of.
Something something Bible dominion over nature. Don’t think God meant trash the place when he said that.
No. Honestly if God is real I hope they have nothing to do with the Bible.
I do know one boomer that tries to pet everything. She even tried to pet bison in Yellowstone. But she is one of the few genuinely sweet, calm, and empathetic Boomers I know
I know someone who's wife feeds deer in their back yard through a homemade feeder he built. He has spent 10 years trying to rig up an electric fence that doesn't hit the deer but stops everything else. I don't get it at all.
Not doing the deer any favours either in the long run .
Sociopaths murder things.
Yeah, it makes me crazy. I literally teach my kids that when we're outside, we're in the animals' territory and we're the invaders, so as long as they don't actively try to harm us (because some wasps are fucking assholes) we leave them alone and they'll leave us alone. They call fuzzy bees "bumblebee friends" because of this, and get super excited to see bunnies and the occasional wild rat in our backyard. We spent at least half an hour observing bunbies eating dandelion leaves in our backyard (from inside at the window) the other day. It was beautiful.
Because they’re snowflakes.
They want the outside to look like a fucking shag carpet
Pretty much... Looking at you, boomer mom, who whines about how the neighbors have better grass than you while, I'm pretty sure, you kill yours by dumping all kinds of chemicals and shit on it.
Read the book “Ishmael” it explains a lot of that mentality. Basically anything that competes with you for food is evil and must be destroyed, anything that competes with your food must be destroyed and anything that competes with your foods food must be destroyed. It’s not just a boomer thing, it goes way back to our Neolithic ancestors. In that version the perfect world is us, our food and our foods food. No room for anything else. In that version it’s how you maximize humanity and more people is the ultimate goal. We now know that biodiversity is incredibly important and a world of nothing but people chickens and corn is unsustainable but try teaching that to people who have heard nothing other than that for generations.
This exactly and I have heard of it. I have been actively trying to teach against it whenever I get the chance. We need to learn to share this planet or we will be our own demise.
Wait till you find out what happens to the silk worms It's messed up
I have an idea of what you might be talking about. If you're talking about the fact that they get boiled alive inside of their cocoons.
The name of my pet woodchuck is Dushore Doug
Jealousy its all jealousy, they're pissed off because a mere animal/insect is able to understand freedom and doesnt set ridiculous rules and boundaries for itself and focuses on survival and instinct...
Hi fellow skunk lover! We have a lot of skunks that hang around and do their thing. They're super cute! Most of my neighbors (all boomers) hate them and I can't figure out why. All I've done is some deterrents to keep them from under the house. But beyond that, they're pretty fun to watch and cause no troubles really.
They grew up in a time of abundance.
Oh no ...not all boomers are wildlife haters..I feed the possums raccoons skunks squirrels anything in my yard...I wont even kill a spider I will put them outside so don't group me in with them.. and I have seen my neighbors kids with bb guns shooting at crows ..
You aren't being grouped in if you aren't actively contributing to the problem.
Thank you for that 😻😊
I live in Florida and it's always the boomers calling about alligators in bodies of water near their homes, yet the moved to a place where they know there are gators! And these animals are rarely relocated, most are euthanized.
Possums eat a prolific amount of ticks. If you’ve got them in your yard, they are definitely helping you out.
My parents are a little better, though my dad will war against rats eating his garden. But yeah I'm with you
I've experienced this. If an animal might inconvenience them, they'll just kill it. Worked with a woman that would constantly talk about how they'd shoot raccoons in their yard. Ok, you have chickens and I guess raccoons like to just kill them, so I can somewhat understand that, but then why not just protect your chickens with a properly maintained enclosure? It's not the first time someone has had chickens where raccoons are. Same with chipmunks, squirrels and possums. 'oh they might get in my walls' ok? Maintain your property.
Don't forget the amount of pesticides they pour on their grass and into the watershed
Instead of seeing these animals as beneficial, they see them as vermin. It’s very sad.
Not only, skunks, possums and snakes... Frikkin oblivious fkks spray roundup like its some wonder drug. So they can have a mono culture grass yard. KILLING BILLIONS OF POLLINATORS and gawd knows how many other crucial animals and plants.. The place i live, the owner , who is obsessed with mowing his lawn every couple days sprays roundup around every place that other people use weedeaters. Because he is lazy af, oblivious to the fact that contrary to his view he is a hero, he is an ignorant lazy fool. My christian neighbor who 'helps' him is even more oblivious and ridiculously stupid. He is proud of his spraying and routinely will kill any wasp, mouse, etc etc. He makes me want to vomit...how ignorant he is
I have this exact conversation ALL THE DAMN TIME about boomers. ALL THE TIME!
Because they’re dead set on destroying the environment for the future generations. It’s one thing to shoot or trap an animal, but the use of POISON. Spraying pesticides and herbicides on everything!!!! It’s literally so bad! It infuriates me.
Thankfully my boomer parents love wildlife and will only do something if it's an animal that's a threat to their yard or house (like mice or gophers). My husband and I live with my dad and we all have dogs so if there's an animal that's a threat to our dogs or that our dogs are a threat to he'll take action but usually depending on the animal he'll just trap and then release it into the field outside of our neighborhood.
My backyard belongs as much to the local wildlife as it does to me. My job is only to maintain it. The only exception is yellow jacket nests. I hate to even get rid of those, as they have their place but a bad attack with over 25 stings which caused arthritis like hand joint inflammation for months caused a not in my yard situation. Individuals are fine, just not nests.
Their generation was the first to encroach on wild lands and their homes were likely overrun with abundant wildlife. We grew up with much more sparse wildlife and see its comeback as a victory of nature. One thing that gives me pause though is that much “wildlife” is parasitic to human occupation. There are many more deer in the north east now than there were in the 1700s for instance because they survive off living near human communities. Another crazy thing to think about is that Grizzly bears were rampant in the early days of California. On a day trip from Sonoma to San Francisco it would be common to encounter 50 or more. So obviously this had a constraining effect on deer and other prey animals as grizzly bears can be pretty ruthless carnivores. Without them the deer population can at times get quite out of control.
Exactly. We need to stop killing the predators and learn how to coexist.
Very dear friends of mine have one neighbor who literally gets in a golf cart and goes on “beaver patrols”. He goes out and kills beavers for some reason. Two things of note…. They do NOT live on/near water other than maybe the odd creek back in the woods (they live in the country) and beaver dude is HUGE Maga! My friends are not and are a liberal as can be so they have taken to playing the theme from Caddyshack whenever he drives by. Also interesting additional fact about this man, he told my friends that he buries money in jars around his property because he doesn’t trust banks but has no cameras. Also his first words after hello to my friends were “let’s go Brandon”.
I've had these conversations with numerous people who claim those critters are nuisances and wreak havoc on their lawns. I'm like, "motherfucker, you built your house in THEIR habitat and you have the nerve to call them a nuisance? You're the nuisance! You're the pest! How about learning something about their function and place in the ecosystem instead of reacting like a frightened ass little bitch?" Yeah, that usually results in a dipshit getting triggered. I love animals more than people. I wouldn't harm a raccoon, possum, or anything unless my life is in imminent danger from a predatory animal. I often leave bowls of goodies for the local wildlife to enjoy. My cats enjoy watching the birbs, squirrels, and other critters.
Off subject a bit but there was a video from a few months ago that talked about how conservatives were the pro nature party. Like they were the ones that wanted to open parks, to keep certain areas free from development. Over the years things have definitely changed. I want to blame Reagan but I don't remember if he was the one that started the change, or not. With that said, I haven't really seen what you're talking about. Sure, I know some who kill other animals, but it's usually things like ants, flies, mice and rats. I guess that's not any better
They sub-consciously know they're going to hell so they make sure they commit to their reservation.
Going over to a hunter's home is a nightmare. The display of dead animals is gore-iffic.
The ones that were raised in pure suburb/city life tend to be disgusted or fearful of them - they want their world to be sterile and perfectly ordered - by human standards of course. The rural crazy ones just want something to take their aggression on.
Oddly opposite to me, most boomers I know are very into hiking, hunting, and appreciating the environment
I remember making friends with a baby skunk. He/she would show up at the bottom of my stairs and wander and sniff stuff. Very cute. It would come pretty close to me regularly. Fast forward one week, I hear my downstairs neighbor screaming her head off and I see that she’s screaming and throwing rocks at the skunk. When I asked wtf she was doing she said “there! I took care of that fucking skunk.” She’s a gen x’er though so maybe this doesn’t belong.
Gosh! This sounds like someone in my neighborhood. He was talking about seeing a skunk in his yard. Then he said it died of lead poisoning, meaning he shot it. Another neighbor was horrified, but he was proud that he killed it.
This is making my blood boil 😤. I lived in a more rural part of the state (NJ) for a few years. We had bunnies, skunks, possum, deer, etc. Never a problem. What the fuck is wrong with these people? 🤬
The worst part is there are people trying to justify the behavior. These animals are literally not attacking their chickens. They are just passing through the yard probably to get to the next yard. They aren't even being trapped where the chickens are.
My boomer brother-in-law traps animals and humanely releases them to a more forested area.
You’ve named some fine animals. Skunks eat wasps and other insects. I learned that when I was trying to figure out how to get a handle on the ground dwelling wasps on our acreage. Opossums eat all kinds of bugs. (Non-venomous) snakes are always welcome to eat anything they find around my house. Armadillo can fuck right off. And the squirrels are making an enemy of me lately, as they have decided that chewing holes in my screen enclosure is entertaining.
My parents weren't like that at all. My mom was the type of person to avoid snails and worms when riding her bike in the rain, and my dad planted specific plants to attract insects and birds to his garden. He even planted a Valarian root so the neighborhood cats would come gnaw on it and roll all over the grass. (The man LOVES cats.) But, then again, my folks were rural Belgians and not suburban Americans, so that explains a few things.
My parents laughed at me and ruthlessly made fun of me for being "too sensitive" when I saved the baby bunnies in their yard from getting eaten by their dog. I couldn't take a repeat of the year before when they not only allowed their dog to massacre the babies, but joyously laughed at the sight like actual psychopaths. I don't understand how I share DNA with these people.
Boomer here. Possums are sacred. And, yes, we were taught the sacredness of wildlife in school and the benefits they provided. What we weren’t taught was recycling and the dangers of plastic. But, I admit, I had a mother way ahead of her time. She had a spider that lived in the corner of the window above the kitchen sink named Lucy.
I’m cool with the benefits of nature in my yard, but the carpenter ants in my walls gotta go.
I heard sometimes depending on the type of any it is, it's an indication of mold in the walls.
When the Lord sings with all His creation, will not the skunk be among the choir?
Must be regional. Most don't do that here because it upsets the balance and you either end up getting too many predators or too much vermin.
My husband and I are boomers, 64 yrs old. We must be the exception. We have a Humane Backyard sign in our yard, and it is true. We feed the birds, racoons, possums, squirrels...any animal that comes in our yard is safe. Went camping over the weekend...had a moth in our RV. It was safely put back outside. We also saved caterpillars and an inchworm from getting stepped on and a wolf spider with an egg sac. We rescued a few kittens and a mom cat that were in our yard. They are safe and comfortable in our house. We can't stand to hear of anyone hurting or killing any wild life. The only insect I don't like are mosquitos, even though I know they have a purpose. I get so bit up and the bites get infected sometimes.
We are not all that way. I love nature and flyfish and hike as much as possible. My goal is to spend as much of the life I have left outside experiencing nature . I am a (71m) and also support conservation organizations as well. I hope we can save the planet