It brought back memories of my mother and her campaign against the woodchucks. I never quite figured it out--yes, they did raid her garden but she tried to gas those in our hayfields as well. It may have been memories from childhood of a horse breaking his leg in one of their holes.
Woodchucks, for those who have never killed one, burrow (particularly in gravelly soil such as we had) and make two kinds of entrances. One has all the excavated soil, it's sort of a front porch from which the woodchuck can raise up on his rear and survey the surrounding landscape for possible predators. While a woodchuck has teeth that can give a dog a nasty bite, they're basically easy prey if cornered away from their burrow. But the other hole is just a hole, very much hidden, and that's the sort of thing that's dangerous, particularly for a horse walking through grass.
It's a reminder, though, of the cross-currents that run through the organic/locavore movement, as is this piece in Slate entitled: "There Will Be Chicken Blood, The gritty truth about urban farming". To the extent that vegetarians are a part of the movement, there's a conflict with the battle to protect the fruits of one's labors. Life is not simple, but I suppose people know that already.
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