I was listening to the Dollop about squirrels being a huge problem in North America in the 1800s and early 1900s, and the lengths the government went through to get rid of them, from bounties to laws requiring the killing of squirrels, and the strain it placed on everyone. Stories of people killing squirrels all day and only stopping because they had no more ammunition.
But like, why didn't they just have more cats? Cats eat squirrels and if there's an abundant food source cats will make large quantities of more cats very quickly. I feel like I must be missing something obvious here.
Hey there,
Just to let you know, your question is fine, and we're letting it stand. However, you should be aware that questions framed as 'Why didn't X do Y' relatively often don't get an answer that meets our standards (in our experience as moderators). There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it often can be difficult to prove the counterfactual: historians know much more about what happened than what might have happened. Secondly, 'why didn't X do Y' questions are sometimes phrased in an ahistorical way. It's worth remembering that people in the past couldn't see into the future, and they generally didn't have all the information we now have about their situations; things that look obvious now didn't necessarily look that way at the time.
If you end up not getting a response after a day or two, consider asking a new question focusing instead on why what happened did happen (rather than why what didn't happen didn't happen) - this kind of question is more likely to get a response in our experience. Hope this helps!