(Jerry Rhodes) wrote in message . com...

"DH" wrote in message

. Do we kill bears that have attacked humans?

Yes

What's the manner we deal with mountain lions?

Get the dogs, run it down and shoot it.

How should this be handled?

Just like I said. They got the dogs, ran it down and shot it.

Pumas/cougars/panthers/mountain lions are not an endangered species.

Well, I don't think there are too many of them around anywhere. How
could there be. Their habitat is mostly gone. It has been taken up by
us humans.

When an animal starts attacking humans it has entered my very personal
ecological niche and I kill it. I don't fault the lion for it is
doing what is natural(hunting prey) and I don't fault myself for I am
doing what is natural for me (self defense).

Jerry (top of the food chain) Rhodes

Actually, Jerry, for most of man's existence on this earth he has not
been anywhere near the top of the food chain. Primates in general are
only safe in the trees. Our proto-human ancestors most likely lived
like scavengers, taking the left overs from the kills of other more
powerful animals.

Look at the human being without any weapons. He is practically
defenseless. No teeth and claws at all to speak of. It is only our
brains that gave us an ultimate advantage whereby we could fashion
weapons with which to kill other animals which were much more powerful
and faster than us in every way. Man (Homo Sapiens) has been a great
hunter, but like the wolf pack that he resembles, he hunts best in a
group where various strategies can be employed which his brain and
language make possible.

Let us not get too stuck on ourselves. We came out of the world of the
animal and we have not made all that much progress despite our
technologies. I have enormous sympathy for the animals that still
manage to exist in the Wild, but I do agree that an animal that has
killed a human must be destroyed. I have spent years trekking in the
back country and have known the fear of being preyed upon by bears and
wolves. I have chosen society and civilization like everyone else, but
let us not forget where we came from.

By the way, the only wild animal left in the world today in great
numbers is the human wild animal. Yes, I am talking about you and me.
We have never been domesticated (who would do it if not ourselves). We
are not like our cattle, pigs and sheep. We are like the mountain lion
- still as wild as we were 50,000 years ago. Civilization is but a
thin veneer with which we cover our savagery. Until you can change the
genes, you have changed nothing. We are as much creatures of the Wild
as is the mountain lion.

Ed Dolan - Minnesota