Another personal thought on getting rid of mountain lions
From today's Rapid City Journal:
Brrrrrrr. It just gives me the heebie jeebies thinking about when it happens. That's when, not if. At the rate they keep popping into South Dakota towns and cities, I think we need to do some serious trimming of numbers.
Yes, I'm sure lions have a place in the ecosystem. And preferrably that's an ecosystem miles and miles away from civilization. And I begrudgingly admit, it's sad in a way. You need to look no farther than the morons in Rapid City who think feeding deer in their yards is ok.
When you attract deer with food, the things that eat deer are going to follow them into town.
Regardless, less than 5 years ago, if someone would have reported a mountain lion in their yard, they'd be thought of as nuts and laughed at. Now, nobody's laughing.
By 8 or 10 months, kittens typically begin to explore away from their mother. The kittens in captivity are estimated to be 8 months old. A family on Park Ridge Place in the Carriage Hills area of southwestern Rapid City discovered the 40-pound female lounging in a tree behind their house Sunday afternoon. Kanta and other GF&P personnel tranquilized and captured the cat, and the next day discovered its mother nearby.PP of Pierre would prefer that more than one of those suckers become stuffed and mounted before it's something other than a deer carcass being dragged across residential yards and a driveway and near a swing set.
Because the adult cat had killed a deer and dragged it across residential yards and a driveway, and near a swing set, GF&P secretary John Cooper of Pierre determined the cat must be killed.
Brrrrrrr. It just gives me the heebie jeebies thinking about when it happens. That's when, not if. At the rate they keep popping into South Dakota towns and cities, I think we need to do some serious trimming of numbers.
Yes, I'm sure lions have a place in the ecosystem. And preferrably that's an ecosystem miles and miles away from civilization. And I begrudgingly admit, it's sad in a way. You need to look no farther than the morons in Rapid City who think feeding deer in their yards is ok.
When you attract deer with food, the things that eat deer are going to follow them into town.
Regardless, less than 5 years ago, if someone would have reported a mountain lion in their yard, they'd be thought of as nuts and laughed at. Now, nobody's laughing.
Comments
That's like swimming in the Everglades and complaining about seeing an alligator.
The early settlers also understood that they couldn't live in harmony with a carnivore that looked at the settler's family and livestock as prey, so they also shot every predator they saw, wolves and mountain lions included.
Our family has lived in western SD since 1881 and mountain lions were rarely, if ever, seen, until it became illegal to kill them and the cat population exploded.
No one CHOSE to move into mountain lion territory – the big cats have invaded our territory and we don't like it.
You may not care if we lose an occasional child or calf, but we do!! We demand that something be done to protect our families and our livestock from a predator that wasn't a problem until the "greenies" created one.
PP, you blogged on this a few months ago. Kill the cats, kill the coyotes, give me my government check, keep GFP out, let me sell hunting licenses, don't fly over my land, don't shoot over my land, don't let the gays marry...
There, that should about do it.
macgregor also understands that the population of Mt. lions has been introduced and is not "natural."
So, find out where the cats are coming from, kill coyotes if they're a problem, give anon 12:11 his government check, protect his property rights from GFP,let anon 12:11 sell hunting license access to his private property, don't fly over his land to spy, don't shoot over his house, let gays marry his son....
That's about it.
Certainly B. Janklow has killed more men in SD that Mountain Lions in the last 100 years. And there was a bear attach in the 1800s? Shi*, let's kill them all now.
Oh, it all harkens me back to the days before Teddy R. when there was no conservation, we killed what we wanted and whiped out species after species.
While we are at it, let's bring back DDT, rear mounted gas tanks and maybe take away the women's right to vote...that way I can finally get rid of Kari Weems.
3:53 must be in favor of allowing grizzlies to roam here again because they were here in relatively large numbers before, and he said we should accept the creatures that God put here.
By the way Teddy Roosevelt was one of the first great conservationists of all times.
DDT? You got your wish,they are bringing it back into use, in Africa, to help control the spread of disease. Glad you agree!!
Your son is gay? How sad, gays have a higher rate of suicide than straights and also have a much shorter life span. I won't go into the biblical stand against homosexually.
Hey, Anon 12:11, have you taken your medication?
Anonymous 3:53: “Macgregor, you said it yourself. The indians and settlers killed the large predators when they moved out there then you said no one chose to move into mountain lion territory. Stick with one train of thought; it'll be easier for us "greenies" to understand your hatred. You or your ancestors moved to "God's Country" you should probably accept the creatures God chose to put there.”
Tell me Anon 3:52, what does protecting my family and my livelihood have to do with hatred? If you read the Book written by God for God’s Country, you’ll find that we, meaning humans, are to have dominion over all of His kingdom and that includes large predators.
And Nicholas Nemec, as lifetime ranchers we protect our livestock from every peril we know about, which does “add money to our bottom line”. Don’t you think we should also protect our livestock and ourselves from mountain lions? The big cats also cause cattle deaths, not to mention the fact that they also kill people.
You are more likely to get killed falling out of the shower or by choking on a hot dog. Domestice dogs kill far more often then big cats do in this country...let's get rid of them too while we are at it.
This is silly.
What is silly - no, make that ludicrous - are folks who would rather have mountain lions loose in the wild at the expense of little kids, pets, livestock, and other wildlife.
That's way beyond silly!