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

Totally agree with you FishingS.

Wild animals have no rights anymore, people think of their own safety first before thinking about the rights of the wild life that we are encroaching on more and more every day.

People move out of the city and into the boonies to be with nature, then when nature retaliates by eating fluffy or hurting someone people in turn retaliate.

Man will not be happy until he is alone with the bugs.

Going to stop now because this subject makes me super made!

The wolves are no longer on the endangered list anymore and are now open to hunt..Grrrr.

Also as mentioned above people no longer want to be responsible for their own actions, they want big brother to take care of everything.

Quote from Chef Seattle;

What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of the spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.

When I was a kid I would go out and fish on a rock jetty. There was a sign warning that anyone who went out on the jetty was doing so at their own risk, and I understood it to mean that if I got hurt out there (whether I fell off a rock and broke a leg or a wave washed me off) it was my fault. But I was careful. I went out there dozens of times and never got hurt.

I think the same thing goes for things like mountain lions -- there should be signs warning that they're around, and letting people know that if they get attacked there it's because they went over the line into the mountain lions' home.

That being said, I do regularly hike with my family in an area where there have been mountain lion sightings (and there are warning signs posted at the trailhead), and when up there we're very careful to keep close to my nine-year-old son. We're taking a risk, but we're minimizing it.

As to killing a mountain lion: If there's an attack, killing the lion won't help the victim, nor even necessarily make the area safer, since there are other lions out there, which will just move into the area. It's just a way to make people "feel safe", so they won't avoid the area where the attack took place. And by extension, they won't be afraid of buying homes up close to the hills, so the developers can keep building more houses out there, squeezing the wildlife even more.

The area where this incident took place is a very rough part of the state of NM, in fact it is a designated wilderness area (actually the world's first designated wilderness area). This is 'no country for for old men'. The area also supports packs of re-introduced Mexican grey wolves. There happens to be a few small communities bordering the wilderness. Man vs. wild animal is a fact of life for folks in the region and with that comes risk for both. It is very unfortunate that these types of attacks happen, this being only the second time in 35 years someone was killed by a mountain lion in NM. You can't blame the human for wanting to be in this remote location while at the same time you can't fault the animal for doing what is necessary to survive. I feel that there will be little if any action taken other than to trap and probably dispatch it, much to the chagrin of wildlife enthusiasts nationwide. In my personal point of view killing the animal is only treating the symptoms and overlooking the problem however the state authorities have the final say in this because while the lions are "protected" they are not "endangered". In this area Mexican grey wolves are protected under federal protections by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Under these protections, wolf populations have reestablished in portions of the lower 48 states with gray wolves in the northern Rockies and Great Lakes, Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest and red wolves in the Southeast. Mountain lions have filled existing habitat to capacity, so as new lions are born, they are being forced out to marginal habitat on the edge of urban areas where food is difficult for them to find and people are more common. Welcome to the food chain!

Nevertheless I feel bad for the families loss.

Added*

On the front page of our local NM news is an article stating that a mountain lion in Pinos Altos, NM (where this attack had occured) was shot and killed yesterday morning (Wed.) and is beleived to be the animal responsible for killing and partially eating the human victim. The body of the puma will be necropsied to be sure it is indeed the guilty animal. This is a problem...if this turns out to be that the wrong animal has been killed. I feel that hysteria will be the 'rule of the day' in future confrontations with pumas in the area and their survival is very much at risk, along with other animals in the wilderness area capable of being a threat. While this may bring temporary 'easing of the mind' of the residents of Pinos Altos, NM and ranchers in the area (after all puma do kill livestock) the paranoia in these episodes have a tendency to breed. We can only hope that the good people of the state of NM and the reisdents of the bordering communities can take comfort the fact that these attacks are RARE and ISOLATED incidences and that they should go on with their lives as before. Let's not go on a witch hunt decimating and destroying a wonderful natural resource. I cringe at the thought of 4X4 pickups loaded with hunters going into the area and carrying out their vengance on these secluded lands.

Just my .02 cents worth.

I didn't hear about it but it makes me upset. I agree with you completely. People should be smarter. But a lot of people are stupid. The animals pay the price no matter what. It's this kind of thing that really brings me down. You too. A bear was killed here (again) in MA. The excuses just make me livid. There wasn't time. People were in danger. blah. blah. Please. It's just lies.

Someone I worked with killed a bird that got stuck in the store. He was a jerk. He did this at night.

Animal doing what an animal does to live and they kill them!

But what gets me is they give the animal no justice but for a human that kills during a crime they house and feed them!WTHECK!!!

if a snake bit a human and he died would they put the snake down or if a bee stung somebody and they had an allergic reaction and died would they hunt down and kill all bees. its human nature for an eye for an eye. sad

Your a human hater...join PETA and vote for Obama. So what kinda fishin ya inta?

Dude! We're Homo Sapiens!

Baddest gang on the planet!

Anybody messes with a Homey, ... gets it.