You guys are too much.
Growing up on the farm, my mother chased the bears away from the orchard and berry patches that surrounded our house, banging on a 10-inch cast iron skillet (which I still use) with a wooden spoon, as she hollered at them in Finnish -- "go away you stupid bears!" (mene pois hölmö karhuja!) They'd leave.
It also reminds me of where I worked back in the late 1970s. We had a guy who wanted to learn taxidermy. He wanted us to pick up any fresh roadkill we spotted on the way to work so he could have something to practice on. If the roadkill was beyond the crockpot stage, I gave it to him!
In all my years in the wilderness, the most serious thing I've ever been threatened with has been people. I have a respect for poisonous snakes, and a few have become two-piece snakes. I've never worried about the other critters that live where I've lived. I've never carried a gun in fear. I carry one, now and then, when intentionally planning on killing something -- like during hunting season, or to "dispatch" the 'coon that has been raiding the chicken coop.
I've been robbed on a Philippine Jeepnee. I've been shot at in North Africa. I had a travel partner stabbed in Bahrain. I've been strip searched in Italy and New York City. All this happened well before 9-11. Since then, I've lost more pocket knives and Leatherman's than I can count, as I forget them on my travels. This has all happened by humans.
I'm not worried about the critters around my pond. Most are considered friends. Some, we invite in for dinner!
