Biologists conducted a two-year study of rodents called the Pika (namesake for Pikachu) in the Asian Steppes.
Each year yak herders poison them by the millions, believing them to be competition for food for the herds when plant life is scarce and temperatures are -20F.
Some locals believed they were harmless, and a scientist discovered yak DNA in the guts of a dead one.
The study conducted involved studying stomach contents of thousands of trapped and poisoned Pikas, as well as detailed observations of the ground where they were known to be.
The result? Pikas were found to be consuming, and living in for warmth, yak shit. Their stomach contents were around 20% yak DNA, but the recordings showed them eating mostly just that which may be due to composition of the shit changing in the sun and not being detectable as purely just shit. The Pikas followed the yak herds and did not appear to have any negative effect on them. Additional research is being conducted on Pikas found elsewhere for this same behavior, including the American Plains. Research will also be conducted on whether the soil was improved by the Pikas shitting out further processed yak shit or if places where the Pikas did not consume the shit were more prone to flame-related phenomena.
Campaigns to stop Pika slaughter are ongoing. In the US they are being driven to extinction by factors including ranchers killing them, as well as possibly the loss of animals who’s shit they may consume that are also killed by ranchers.
Farmers kill Fluffies en mass not realizing they are beneficial? Farmers know it and use Poopie herds to follow cattle herds to eat shit to reduce brushfires while ensuring rapid grass regrowth during field rotation/migration? Fluffies find a niche, albeit an unpleasant one, surviving by following domesticated or feral herds of herbivores? Abusers looking for massive Fluffy hauls come into conflict with environmentalists or ranchers/herders as they harass and/or spook the herds the Fluffy herds follow, possibly resulting in shootouts between Abusers and cowboys or hired goons of ranchers? Poopies unsold in shelters are collected and sent to ranchers for a better, or at least longer and fruitful, life? A logical explanation for how feral Fluffies still exist as pretty colors born to herd-following Poopies set out for a better life they feel they deserve, resulting in a constant flow of Fluffies with varying levels of entitlement headibg back into cities and less suitable environments where they usually inevitably find doom?
There’s the stress relievers, the lunatics, the edgy OCs, the trolls, the grouches, the mad scientists.
Then there’s the ones dedicated to being assholes. The few who are specifically out to destroy something beautiful or nice. They don’t sugarcoat it with justifications about them dying anyway, or some misguided belief that the artificial nature justifies destroying them for days as if a rate that slow has any effect save for causing a population increase due to lack of competition. They don’t roleplay pike they learned anything, or profit off it. They specifically want to make the world worse. Not just for Fluffies either. They poison people’s pets, both Fluffy and mundane. Rob stores and pin the blame on employees. Start fires, key cars, and instead pf hiding their gun they leave it loaded near a playground. Buy canned Foals and leave them at random places, content that whether they starve, are consumed by animals, or are picked up and given tragic deaths in the midst of honest attempts to be loved, suffering has spread further in the world than some bored wageslaves and students could do.
The guy who turned the Fuzzies into Terminators at Cleveland was their first foray inti post-Fluffy relevance.
Those folks hear that an efficient use for Fluffies has been found, some kind of harmony has been reached, that there is a place of joy, and they look to end it. The economic ruin of a family and the deaths of hundreds of cattle is not the cost of Fluffy suffering, its the pedestal upon which the Fluffy misery rests.
That said, that much money on the line and a few are going to find out that Stand Your Ground laws, long stretches of land with no authority figures or many civilians to see or find a body, and uncaring law enforcement go both ways.
Boy did that trigger some ideas. I live in one of the US Western states that are pretty notorious for groups/militias of people hiding out from the gov’t for whatever reason they decide…your lines about ranchers and shootouts…oh boy now I want to do a comic on a fluffy herd captured by a group of skinheads, who want to train them and use them for their purposes…man, there are just not enough hours in the day to accomplish all of the Things we must do. I already spend too much time in this awesome FC. I still don’t know how I even got here.