You've got a bunch of people out there, both private and public (DNR, etc), that are going to be made aware of sick and dying animals.
That is an assumption, on your part, that is just not so. I spend my life outdoors, farming, stewarding forestlands on my property, hunting, fishing ........... heck, just walking and looking, lots of times. Many game birds have mortality rates that are extremely high. Doves, for example, are 50+%, according to game biologists. With as many doves as there are here, and the time I spend outdoors in their habitat, why don't I see them "sick and dying" all the time? I NEVER see it. And that's just one species. How about all the other species? With the proliferation of fauna here, you never see any "sick and dying", except for roadkills. "Why?", doesn't pertain to your original argument, but it is because most animals, birds included, when they realize they are weakened from whatever means, including age, seek a hiding place to recover or die. And, it's also because predators take out the sick and dying very quickly. I see scatterings of dove feathers all the time, where hawks kill and eat them, but no "sick and dying". And piles of feathers prove nothing, except that the bird was eaten.
To postulate that people are just naturally going to be made aware of sick and dying animals is ridiculous, and doesn't stand up to close scrutiny.
SRH
