“Only a buzzard feeds on its friends”

“Only a buzzard feeds on his/its friends” has been on a popular Internet list of sayings titled “A Cowboy’s Guide to Life.” Texas Bix Bender has used “Only a buzzard feeds on his friends” in three books of sayings: Don’t Squat With Yer Spurs On!: A Cowboy’s Guide to Life (1992), Pards (2000) and Don’t Squat With Your Spurs On: A Cowboy’s Guide to Life (2009).
 
The saying “only a buzzard feeds on his friends” has been used frequently in politics as a reminder to use the greatest attacks against the other political party. The “buzzard” saying might be related to an older saying, “An ill bird fouls its own nest.” 
 
 
Old West Wisdom
Only a buzzard feeds on his friends.
 
21 October 1956, Dallas (TX) Morning News, Letters, pt. 3, pg. 2:
Only the buzzard fouls its own nest. Candidates who seek to be President and Vice-President on a campaign of doubts, fears and suspicions of this nation and its President are unworthy of public trust. Some men had rather be President than right.
L. A. DE SAHZO
5126 Lancaster Road, Dallas 16.
   
Google Books
Don’t Squat With Yer Spurs On!:
A cowboy’s guide to life
By Texas Bix Bender
Salt Lake City, UT: Peregrine Smith Books
1992
Pg. 70:
Only a buzzard feeds on his friends.
 
Google Books
Pards
By Texas Bix Bender
Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith
2000
Pg. ? (unpaginated):
Only a buzzard feeds on his friends.
 
BT3Central Forums
DUD
01-24-2005, 03:06 PM
A friend sent me this. Bill
 
DON’T SQUAT WITH YER SPURS ON
A Cowboy’s Guide to Life:
(...)
* Only a buzzard feeds on his friends.
 
Google Books
Stigma
By Philip Hawley, Jr.
New York, NY: HarperCollins
2007
Pg. 85:
“Only a buzzard feeds on its friends.”
 
Google Books 
Don’t Squat With Your Spurs On:
A cowboy’s guide to life
By Texas Bix Bender
Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith
2009
Pg. 76:
Only a buzzard feeds on his friends.
 
FOXNews.com
‘Only a Buzzard Feeds on His Friends’ and Ten Other Tips For Republicans From the Cowboys
By Patrick Dorinson
Published April 21, 2009
(...)
2. Only a Buzzard Feeds on His Friends
You need to stop this “conservative” vs. “moderate” civil war. The only folks it helps is Democrats. Ronald Reagan would be appalled if he saw how you all have torn the party apart. He believed in “big tent” Republicanism. If you keep this up, the next sign you will see on the political road will read, “This way to the Whig Convention.”
   
Google Books
A Love of Her Own: a novel
By Maggie Brendan
Grand Rapids, MI: Revell
2010
Pg. 120:
“Only a buzzard feeds on his friends. How much do you have?”
 
San Francisco (CA) Chronicle
California GOP struggles with internal strife
Joe Garofoli,Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writers
03/21/11
(...)
Patrick Dorinson who writes on the cowboylibertarian.com website, said the combative state of the California GOP isn’t promising.
 
“There’s an old saying,” he said. “Only a buzzard feeds on its friends and relatives.”