Not being a farmer, but owning and old farm at one time, I couldn't bring myself to shoot groundhogs as I also couldn't bring myself to eat one. I don't kill snakes, I move every turtle I see from a roadway, and I swerve for toads on rainy evenings. But startlings and coyotes receive no pass from me if I can help it all. The starlings were such prolifc nesters, and exploited every crevase in the old farmhouse eaves, gutters, shutters, as well as the half a dozen out buildings, I left a shotgun at the corner of the door and would shoot the flushes everytime I walked outside. I sleep peacefully in my currently more mountainous location as I don't see starlings at all, though the coyotes get trapped as close as 50 yards to the front door.
Don’t knock a young groundhog until you’ve tried one. Pan fried they taste a lot like rabbit. The young ones are good. The older ones, not so much. Tough as a boiled shoe.
