Opinions on the killing of a Mountain Lion that supposedly took the life of a man in New Mexico!!?

I agree with you, it seems this world has gone crazy, no one seems to have any respect for anything else any more, there are s many different views as to what actually happened but like you said in the post WE moved into their territory, the chances are the guy was just as much to blame, Ive fished in some dangerous places over the time, one place being Canada for salmon, yes the grizzlies will get pretty pi**ed off by taking their salmon, but staying downstream of them they get their salmon and i get mine, on the same occasion trekking back to the lodge there were numerous bears but so Long as you keep you're distance they don't care, why should we be constantly battling with nature?

whilst i became right into a baby i might bypass out and fish on a rock jetty. there became into an indication warning that anybody who went out on the quay became into doing so at their very own threat, and that i understood it to point that if I have been given harm obtainable (no count if I fell off a rock and broke a leg or a wave washed me off) it became into my fault. yet i became into careful. I went obtainable dozens of cases and not have been given harm. i think of the comparable component is going for issues like mountain lions -- there ought to be signs and indications warning that they are around, and letting people comprehend that in the event that they get attacked there that's because of the fact they went over the line into the mountain lions' living house. That being stated, I do often hike with my kin in a community the place there have been mountain lion sightings (and there are indicators and indications published on the trailhead), and whilst up there we are very careful to maintain on the brink of my 9-365 days-old son. we are taking a threat, yet we are minimizing it. As to killing a mountain lion: If there is an attack, killing the lion won't help the sufferer, nor even unavoidably make the section safer, on the grounds that there are different lions obtainable, which will only pass into the section. that's only the thank you to make people "sense secure", so as that they won't stay away from the section the place the attack happened. And via extension, they won't be frightened of paying for for properties up on the brink of the hills, so the builders can save construction extra residences obtainable, squeezing the organic international much extra.

Hey FS,

While it is possible to educate most humans about the inherent dangers of living around and with wildlife, I don't think it is possible to educate wildlife to not consider humans as being on the food chain. When we choose to live in and around our big predators, there is always a chance that we will become their prey. It is what they do to survive. If an animal has killed and eaten a human once, there is always the possibility of this happening again. How far away is a safe distance to trap & move a maneater??? I feel for the family members and the lion.

Well, you know as well as I do. We move into these animals native habitats, we make our home and recreation areas there. We destroy their hunting areas, as well as making the animals move to new trails, we change thier habits. They evolve somewhat, they adapt, they eat billy bob while squatting number two style behind that tree. We are suprised.

Thats what 98% of the population does and thinks.

We, they educated outdoorsmen, understand why these things happen. We are not suprised the mountain lion ate the guy. We are not suprised when the tiger eats the gay guy in Vegas. We understand.

Let that cat live till the day he is trapped, or legally hunted.

Tree huggers need not apply! Unless you are applying to feed this hungry cat!

Hey FS. As someone who owns a home right near the area in New Mexico and knows a little bit more of what's going on here than is being reported nationally, let me give you my perspective. I hunt right near where this happened and go camping and hiking in the adjacent Gila Wilderness frequently.

The cat was wounded. Last week when the wildlife agent arrived at the scene of the man's killing, the cat was still on the property even though attempts to 'run him off' were made, he refused to retreat. Warning shots were fired, he did not back off. This tells you that cat was not at all afraid of humans and that something was quite possibly wrong with this animal.

Wildlife agent fired his shotgun at the cat, knocking him down but he got up and took off, bleeding and wounded. (Let me point out I am a hunter and opposed to anyone using so-called "buckshot" on medium game like deer, cats, wolves, etc. Had the agent used a proper rifle, this would not have happened.)

When you have a man-eating, wounded puma roaming around in a populated area, there is no choice but to hunt him down and kill him. What if that cat attacked a child, and no effort had been made to terminate him?

You folks seem to think this happened in the wilderness, or in some area that was recently wilderness and humans have just encroached. This man lived in a town that has existed since 1860, inside the town limits, surrounded by hundreds of houses, families, weekend cabins, small farms and ranches that have been there for decades or longer.

I have hunted puma and know that they are very stealthy creatures capable of avoiding men possibly better than any animal it's size in the Americas. If a cat sees or smells you, he is gone, forget about it, you won't find him. That this cat came into a town, killed and ate a man and then did not leave even when shot at by numerous humans in an open field indicates this was not a healthy and well animal.

Another thing to consider is population. The cat population is so great here, that even though they sell more cat tags year after year, their numbers are skyrocketing. Just recently, New Mexico's state legislature considered taking them completly off the game list and onto the varmit and pest list, just like coyote, to be hunted and sho on sight. Only the so-called "animal rights" groups stopped this effort. Fish and Game and the university biologist were for it and so were people from towns all over New Mexico who fear for their children and elderly. The cat population is that big and has become that much of a problem.

If you think humans are the worst animals on the planet, please do not forget we are part of nature too. Nature made us and we are part of the ecosystem just like cats and wolves and sharks. I find it really strange that people can despise their own species, expecially when humans have made such incredible attempts to protect nature in the past century, such a turnaround from what came before for thousands of years.

Our populations have exploded, as the things that used to keep our numbers in line, famine, disease, child mortality and war have been reduced while our ability to produce food has multiplied. Think about this every time someone says that stopping war or curing diseases are "good" things.

Or, to be more personal, if you have procreated human offspring and had even one child, then you yourself are the worst culprit in declining wildlife habitats.

Consider the potential hypocrisy here my friend! I'm just using it as an example, of course, but think about it. If you really wish to save the planet, kill yourself!

Sure we have encroached on other species habitats, just as any growing species does. Why anyone would feel bad about the superiority of their own species is beyond me and exhibits a fundamental lack of truly understanding nature. The strong survive and flourish, the weak die out. It's not good or bad, it's just nature.

If the weak were artificially made to survive, if nature and the natural order of things becomes perverted off course, then down the road nature herself will suffer.

Yeah I think about it from time to time... I really just want some good clean water to fish in.

Beam me up Scotty... This planet sucks.

I believe you need to read DJ's answer - he has explained it very well-there are always three sides to everything- your side, my side and the right side.