Got Cougars?

Here's an interesting piece about the cougar attacks in California. LINK. You may want to skip the first half. It's a little too self-indulgent for us, but the second half is clever enough. Excerpts:

"There is a better chance of being struck by lightning than being attacked by a lion." That's John Updike "Lion specialist" with California Fish and Game Department. "Including Thursday's incident, there have been only 13 mountain lion attacks on humans in California over the past 110 years."

Fine, Updike, but you're omitting an interesting datum: 90 per cent of those attacks came in the last twenty years ”“ coinciding with California's hunting ban on cougars. Interesting, huh?

"Wealthy trophy hunters, many from out of state, will pay for the pleasure of shooting a lion so they can hang mountain lions over their mantelpieces." Thus ran, word for word, the scientifically-based campaign to ban cougar hunting in California.

And here's the craziest part: more lions are killed now in California by (taxpayer and hunting-license fee salaried) wildlife officers than were killed previously by (tax and hunting-license paying) hunters!

Ah! But at least none get hung over a mantlepiece, hunh greenies!