A Fable

Once upon a time, there was a sly fox.  This fox went skulking around rural areas periodically eating poultry and the occasional egg (to keep its pelt sleek and shiny, of course).

Over time, the farmers in the region developed security for the barnyards, including dogs, passwords, and serious agricultural architecture, including a henhouse with penthouse scratching area and a guarded entrance.  

Eventually, the fox found itself craving the taste of chicken.

So first, the fox went to university and majored in poultry management, minoring in architecture.

Then the fox started telling anyone who would listen that the henhouses as built were bad for the chickens, removing them from the sea-level gravel that their talons craved.  The fox produced studies demonstrating that birds kept more than 20 feet above the ground were scrawnier and therefore less valuable at the poultry market.  The fox touted the superior nutritional value and flavor of the totally free-range bird.

To oblige the farmers, periodically the fox would cull out smaller, weaker, unmarketable chickens and cracked eggs.

Eventually the farmers made the fox commissioner of poultry.

And they were very surprised to discover one day that there were no more chickens or eggs, and that the fox had a pelt like a shampoo model.

;)