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[Laterigrade]

I began extensive breeding programs in the first year of my fort, increasing supplies every year through trading with elves and constant trapping of the local warthogs and rhinoceri and breeding and various other methods.

I now have over 500 livestock. Is there an easy way to get rid of extra animals, besides just killing them and having to deal with the corpses and the resulting stress?

[TubaDragoness]

In truly Dwarf Fortress style, magma is the best solution. Carve out a pit with an access ramp, pasture all animals in that pit, then fill the pit with firey goodness. No corpses, just delicious bacon smell.

If magma/lava aren't an option, you could contrive a flooding barn that you then seal. Leaving them out for invaders is possible, but tricky to minimize dwarven exposure to remains since they tend to flee. Grazers can be starved to death underground, but pigs and birds scare up insects and won't starve.

[delphonso]

Personally, I prefer the McDonalds method. I build a room with a rising drawbridge, pasture the unwanted livestock in there (usually about 20 at a time) and then slam them into pink paste.

[Deus Machina]

Less efficient but more fun is the old 'badgerpocalypse'.
Construct cages where invaders are likely to pass. Stuff cages with animals. Attach cage to lever.
When invaders come, pull lever. Watch Fun ensue.

[FantasticDorf]

I now have over 500 livestock. Is there an easy way to get rid of extra animals, besides just killing them and having to deal with the corpses and the resulting stress?

Personally, I prefer the McDonalds method. I build a room with a rising drawbridge, pasture the unwanted livestock in there (usually about 20 at a time) and then slam them into pink paste.

Cages have no limits to what can be stuffed in them and bridge-crushed, regardless of the tags of the creatures inside.

Including but not least limited to, intelligent beings like trolls/troggs/goblins, megabeasts, common animals (but not not pets) and clowns once webbed up, and they can all be grouped up safely in the same cage to be destroyed or dropped down the chute seperately.

[Mort Stroodle]

Eat them. Make a bunch of butchers workshops, assign a bunch of butchers, and have them all chopped up into delicious rhinocerous stew.

[Quarque]

Once you have culled their numbers using any of the above methods, some tips to prevent this from happening again.

Number one: animals in cages will not breed.
Number two: animals outside of cages can be prevented from breeding by gelding the males.

So geld all of the male animals in your fort, but keep an ungelded male or two in a cage to continue the reproduction cycle when needed. This gives you complete control over the population size.

Note: a few young can still be born just after you have gelded or caged all male animals. That's because the pregnancy happened earlier. Apply the same method to any new young (or butcher them) and after a few months reproduction stops.

By the way, I have a question myself about this topic.
- There is a screen under z (status) - animals that lets you mark animals for gelding, but it does not show which ones are caged.
- There is another screen under u (units) that shows you all of your animals and cage info, but it does not allow you to mark animals for gelding. Help! Is there an easy way to geld uncaged animals? Right now I am selecting animals one by one to do this.

[PatrikLundell]

- It's been said male animals in cages can impregnate females outside of it, in the (same and) adjacent tiles. Thus, the cages shouldn't be set up in the pasture.
- Grazers are a pain to have caged as they need feeding if they can't graze, and if you keep your dorfs busy all the time they may downgrade the feeding tasks.
- I send all animals except two of each gender and species to slaughter as soon as they mature. Using Dwarf Therapist I ensure the ones left are reproductive and that it's the oldest ones that are slaughtered, and I often slaughter the males too, if there are immature males available.
- The exception, of course, is cats. Males are gelded as soon as they adopt, while adopting females are either send to the dogboxes guarding the entrances, of the prisoner execution device for flattening.