Sunday, April 9, 2006 | 7:32 a.m.
Regarding the Sun's April 6 article on the shooting of mountain lions, "Mountain lions in Arizona's line of fire":
The mountain lions have a right to the bighorn sheep more than people do! Why not cancel the hunting permits for the sheep instead? Would that not be the first logical course of action ... if the goal is really to protect our wild animals?
The real issue is the land. All our wild animals are being crowded out to make more and more room for human development. A sheep is not more important than a mountain lion. The predators kill off the weak and the sick ... that is their job. We should allow a natural-size wild lands population ... mountain lions only work for the good of the land and the wild animals they hunt. The mountain lions know this ... even the sheep know this.
Only mankind seems to miss the point: We all need to work with Nature, not against her. We need to leave enough land in the wild for the animals to manage their own lives.
We are destroying our natural environment. Meanwhile, our wild horses are being rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management to the point some Western states now have none.
I hope this is not the planned fate for our mountain lions as well.
Nylene W. Schoellhorn, Silver Springs
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