Why does the WS program spend money on livestock protection when livestock losses to predators is only a minor problem compared to the other causes of death?

Statistics can often be misleading. The livestock losses reported to and by WS typically deal just with the direct cost of predation, indirect costs are very seldom captured. Some individual livestock producers may only rarely have a problem with predators, while other producers sustain much higher than average losses. For those producers who suffer high predator losses, the assistance provided by WS may be the difference between maintaining their livelihood or going out of business.