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.
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