I agree, Bill !!!
MA
For those who would like to learn more about cougars...
COUGAR NETWORK MAKES PUMA ID & FIELD GUIDES
AVAILABLE
Cougar Network News,
4/14/09
In its on-going efforts to assist wildlife agencies, field
researchers, and the general public, The Cougar Network has published
an abbreviated Puma ID Guide and a full-length Puma Field Guide authored
by leading wildlife biologists Harley Shaw, Paul Beier, Melanie Culver,
and Melissa Grigione. The guides cover the Biological Considerations,
General Life History, Identification, Assessment, and Management of
Puma concolor. To download the guides free of charge go to http://www.cougarnet.org/idguide.html and select
"Save As" from the menu. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to
view these files.
Pathetic. Not shooting a mountain lion, per se.
I have no problem with hunters stalking and shooting mountain lions where
they are reasonably plentiful and where there are laws and regulations
governing the hunters.
Pathetic is some doofus discovering a mountain lion snoozing on a
branch 50 feet (I seriously doubt the 50 yards claim) away, calling around
on his cell phone until he finds out there's no law stopping him, and then
blazing away. Wahoo! Lookit me, I'm gonna be famous!
Just like the guy who shot the moose a few years ago: "It charged
me! I shot in self defense." He shot it in self-defense
alright--in the side, as it stood grazing 50 yards away in a harvested
cornfield.
Pathetic is the political cowardice of the Conservation Commission
and the DNR staff--for their attitude of total denial that mountain lions
are living and hunting in Iowa; for their unwillingness to set any kinds
of recognition or protections for the big cats, for bears, moose, wolves
and any other rare wild animals that wander across our borders.
Pathetic is the way we've spent some millions of dollars to restore
river otters to Iowa, only to see the DNR "experts" and
Commissioners, for pure political expediency, set trapping limits that let
so many animals be taken that in just two years, the populations have
plummeted alarmingly... And yet, I've not heard of any moves to
close the season or revisit the regulations. Otters: another
exotic crop that failed?
What's really pathetic is the persistent,
short-sighted commodity-crop attitude that rules how we as a State
think about our natural lands, the plant communities and the animals,
birds, and fish that live on and in them. (And just
forget about amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates.)
Ecological complexity, interdependence, stability, integrity,
sustainability--plenitude--mean nothing if they don't generate
dollars.
Likewise, it's pathetic how any voicing of science and long-term
wisdom is quickly shushed. Or shouted down. Who at DNR could
dare say publicly, "Yup, we've got mountain lions in Iowa.
That's because we've got more forest cover for them to hide in, and
because we've got a half-million deer for them to feast on. And
we're gonna have more of them. They eat deer, not cattle, not
housecats, so everybody calm down."
Nobody, at least as far as I've heard, can even speak up and try to
educate against the ignorant prejudice that river otters rob
fishermen of the best fish in the rivers. I have heard trappers say
that they like to catch and kill young otters, never reporting it, because
they don't want them growing up and competing for the good fish.
Pathetic.
On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 1:08 PM, joe [log in to unmask]> wrote:
http://gazetteonline.com/breaking-news/2009/12/15/cedar-rapids-man-shoots-mountain-lion-in-iowa-county
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