if all farm animals were protected from predators, and died natural deaths...?

Question

and then the dead bodies were distributed in open country, would this mean sufficient enough numbers of carrion each year to provide wild carnivorous animals with significant proportions of their diets?

I'm not proposing a debate on the farming/meat industry, I know this sort of thing isn't on the cards, and I also know that it is a fool's paradise to assume the farming infrastructure would remain to accomodate millions of largely unprofitable animals, but this is just a hypothetical question.

Answer 1

Possibly but don't forget, food supply is what controls wild animal populations. If this practice was undertaken, at a considerable financial burden to ranchers / farmers, next year the demand would increase because the wild population would increase. If there was no increase in the number of dead animals the population of carrion eaters would eventually adjust and stabilize at an appropriate level. Unless, of course, the carrion eaters found your dog or cat, alive or dead, an easy food source.

No offense intended, and you are certainly not alone, but many laws / rules / ordinances etc are enacted without a thorough consideration for possible side effects. Beyond possible side effects nearly every law has unintended / unforeseen / unforeseeable consequences. Your idea's consequence would be, at the very least, a short term increase in the population of scavengers. And, this overpopulation would almost certainly cause conflicts with other domestic animals.