To the editor: We have simply lost our respect and appreciation for how the world works outside of our bureaucratized human minds. (“Why did authorities kill the Malibu mountain lion that attacked a child? 'We don't have a jail for mountain lions,'” Sept. 4).
A puma was killed after attacking a five-year-old boy. Saying that we “had no choice” but to kill an animal that did nothing but exist in the only way it knows how is an indictment of human beings.
Like lions, we are mortal beings made of flesh and blood. We cannot stop other creatures from trying, inconveniently, to keep their homes while they are hungry or afraid, just as we cannot stop our fellow creatures from sometimes becoming homeless, hungry and afraid.
While I sympathize with people trying to reconnect with nature, it is our expectation of absolute safety and control that will ensure we no longer have an environment outside of ourselves to appreciate.
Our “responsibility” to eliminate a threat should include accountability for the environmental degradation we reject every day.
Matthew Neel, Sherman Oaks
..
To the editor: The human race: what an ironic joke on this planet!
When innocent children are killed by some disturbed individual because it is so easy to get a military-style assault rifle in the United States, it is part of life in this country. But when a mountain lion is killed after attacking a five-year-old boy in California, one might think the world has come to an end.
Well, guess what? After destroying Earth's welcome mat for plants and animals, we will destroy any link humans have to sustaining life on this planet.
When we're gone, Earth will survive another round of idiotic humans. What a plan!
Dave Novis, Santa Barbara
