Life and Aluminium Phosphide

Vern was a man in a world of creatures whose lives were abstract and non-essential to his. Nature had no place in agriculture, even the weather was a nuisance. The soil was his to plant in, the fruit was his to pick, the air and water were his to dirty, and this animal was his to kill. The rules that applied to people did not apply to vermin. He could kill thousands of them, he had killed thousands of them, and he could die an upright man. The only problem was that Vern could not kill this particular ground squirrel...