Kentucky farmers say they have little recourse against federally-protected vultures, which have increasingly been terrorizing their livestock to death, according to a Wednesday report.

The black and turkey vultures, which are native to Kentucky, consume newborn calves, full-grown ewes and lambs alive by pecking them to death, farmers say.

"With a vulture, it's like someone came in with a skinning knife," said Derek Lawson of Foxhollow Farm in Oldham County. "It's all clean cuts. Usually, the hide's completely cut off, whereas with a coyote or dogs, it'll be torn and jagged."

Farmers lose around $300,000 to $500,000 worth of livestock to these native vultures each year, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported. The animals are federally-protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

Lawson told the Louisville Courier-Journal there has been a significant increase of vultures in the area since 2009. He said his 2019 calving season began with him seeing six vultures pecking a calf to death.

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Special federal $100 annual permits are required before a person can kill vultures. Without these, farmers face a fine of $15,000 or six months in jail.

But despite the nuisance of these birds, some farmers they are sometimes necessary for the ecosystem because they dispose cleanly of animal carcasses.

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"You gotta have those lines," Lawson said. "They are a necessary part of the ecosystem. Otherwise we'd just have dead stuff just laying around, slowly rotting over time. They kinda speed things up."