I completely agree with you about free-range pets. People seem to think they're doing the animals a favor when they're really not. My hottest fury, though, goes to people who dump their pets in a rural area where they can 'live free'. If the coyotes don't get them, they starve or get run over or some other horrible fate. Since my little horse ranch was at the end of a 5-mile dirt road, you can imagine the number of throwaways that wound up there - in the waiting jaws of my 2 extremely fine hunting chows. They were such an effective team that the one time they did escape the acre I fenced just for them around the house, they actually made it home safely almost a week later. Neither would admit where they'd gone. Singly, neither would've been a match for the dangers they faced either.
But I digress. Wanted to tell you about the days before the chows cleared the place of other critters. Somebody had dumped their collection of fancy pet rabbits and their successors were indeed flourishing, partly because I fed them. Some were almost tame and would eat food placed near me if I stayed very still a long time. But I had an old German Shepherd who could barely hobble any more, so if she started trying to 'chase' one of the bunnies, it would only hop far and fast enough to keep out of reach. After a few steps, she'd stop to rest and so would her target. When she got up enough strength to resume wobbling forward, the bunny would hop a little more and wait for her to call another rest stop. Sometimes they'd circle the house a couple times before the dog wore out too much to continue. That was her version of chasing rabbits - hobble/wobble a few steps, stop to rest, then go again.
The chows were something else.
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