Which Came First: The Mountain Lion or the Subdivision?

Oh No... Not Again...

...In the ad nauseum replayed words (...more or less) of Reverend Wright:
"No... Not 'God Bless 'Them'... 'God Dam* Them!...'".

Well...

Chalk another violent and unnecessary death of a Priceless and Incredibly Beautiful Wild Creature of Nature to those Stupid, Self-Centered, Brutal, Egomaniacal, Clueless, Self-Destructive... (...Nix that)... Globally-Destructive HOMO-SAPIENS!

(I'm a little annoyed.)

Why?

****BREAKING NEWS****

A big local News Event around here (San Francisco Bay Area) is the appearance of a mountain lion in a Hayward, CA residential area.

It's the second appearance of one of the big cats showing up amidst houses and fenced yards in two weeks.

The first wild wonder didn't fare too well.

It found itself cornered by the local police and.... Well, what else do the police do when facing a situation that's not in their handbook... it was shot to death in a barrage of handgun bullets.

My first thought was... "Where the hell were the Fish and Game people with their tranquilizer guns?"

Sadly - I've since found out - Fish and Game wouldn't have blinked.

With this new appearance-
The announcement heard on all the local news stations goes something like this:

"Another mountain lion was spotted in a Bay Area neighborhood yesterday. Fish and Game experts have been called in to set traps for the animal and residents have been told to stay in their homes, not to approach the cat if they see it and to call 911 if they do."

I have a few issues with these statements.

First:
What they don't tell you (and what I found when I looked at the video on the screen) is this...

The aforementioned "neighborhood" isn't a well-established, concrete jungle where the only 'wildlife' people "spot" are scavenging pigeons and the occasional rodent (usually around fast-food restaurant dumpsters)... No.

This is, apparently, a sparsely-populated outcropping of urban sprawl that's only just begun creeping into the rolling, green, tree-dotted hills that have been home to mountain lions and all kinds of wildlife for Hundreds of Years.

A Thump On The Head to whomever wrote that news script being recited.

If you looked at the video that the film crew shot...
You'd see that the TRUTH of the situation is NOT that the mountain lion (a 2-3yr. old 90-lb. male youngster) has wandered into our 'civilized' society... No.

The TRUTH is that the so-called 'civilized' society has wandered into the mountain lion's territory and is now crying "Wolf!"... or "Mountain Lion!"

And... What about Fish and Game?

Don't wait for them to come to the rescue of the poor creature.

They're gunning for it, too. Two baby goats are missing/assumed killed and the mountain lion is being blamed. For that reason, Fish and Game are planning on trapping it and then "euthanizing the animal". Fish and Game have been quoted as saying that, "Trapping and releasing the animal is not feasible."

"...Not Feasible?!"...

What the hell?

It only weighs 90-lbs.... I could move it!

The humans are the ones who are tresspassing in it's territory. This means that it can't be too far from home and they wouldn't have to go too far.

Which is EXACTLY why it showed up there...
And probably why they don't consider it "feasible" to release it back into the wild. People will be continue to tresspass further into the hills and continue to be shocked to find wildlife... So, why bother relocating it... It'll just end up in trouble again.

People keep moving into and claiming what were formerly wild-only areas and then act shocked and awed when the long-time residents come by to check them out.

Not only that, if they are raising small livestock in open, unprotected areas with no herding dogs to protect them...

Well, duh!... It's a Mountain Lion! You've moved your clan into where the big cat's relatives have been living, mating and hunting small, furry animals for generations!

Now... Who's the TRESSPASSER?

These Human-Wild conflicts are the perfect preface to a Serious Global Crisis that's been irking me for a long time.

Human Beings are quick to decide when, in their eyes, a population of a particular wild species has gotten too big and needs to be reduced. They then will either kill off a certain number of those animals themselves or let hunters do it.

They've missed one. The One Super-Sized Population that Human Beings urgently need to look at is their own. They need to recognize and admit that it's teetering on ridiculous... if not self-and-globally destructive and take decisive steps to begin controlling it.

Ignoring the immediate and urgent Global Threat is begging for big trouble.

People have started and will start wars for the planet's resources - especially the finite ones.

Shortages of Food; Clean, drinkable water; Healthy soil able to grow crops; Endless demands for Energy; Air that's safe to Breathe... We're only seeing the faintest of hints at what problems might develop... and the top contributor to these problems is uncontrolled human population growth.

Case in Point:
For example: When I see those obnoxious commercials from Christian Children's Fund... you know the ones... They are filmed in a poverty-stricken slum in Brazil. The kids are skinny and barefoot and digging through landfill... The old, white man on the screen is asking for you to help support one of the countless children in the same horrible predicament... Incredibly, at one point, he starts to refer to the potential child you send financial support to as, "... your child."... I hate that. It's manipulative and a lie.

I want to see Christian Children's Fund using some of it's resources to really help poor families and provide Family-Planning Information and Birth Control options to people who need it and/or don't have access to/can't afford it.

Here's my contribution: They can call it The Christian Condom Fund!

Oh, in another related item...

If you have to tell someone that they shouldn't approach a Mountain Lion, Grizzly Bear or any other Wild and Dangerous Animal... Humanity Does Not Need Them!

I'm not kidding. Whether or not it sounds harsh, it's the TRUTH.

Mother Nature, God or Who/Whatever Created All That Is... Included in Her/His/Their Creation a little Fact of Life called: "Survival of the Fittest". This is why carnivorous predators choose to hunt the weak members of a herd... A Bonus: It makes the gene pool of the herd Healthier and Stronger. A Win-Win situation!

Well-meaning and/or lawsuit-fearing human beings have totally screwed this part of the Divine Plan up.

I feel the same about safety labeling on things...

Like plastic bags...

If someone doesn't have enough common sense/survival instinct to know that a plastic bag is not a toy... We don't need them and we don't need their common sense-lacking genetic contribution in the gene pool.

(Please note: I am talking about adults, not children.)

Thanks... I've needed to get that off my chest for a long, long time.

Peace.
L.