Lion Killings Show Man’s Arrogant--and Erroneous--Sense of Entitlement

I read with anger the article about the Santiago Canyon resident who shot two cougars, complaining the mountain lions were a threat to his livestock.

This is yet another example of man’s encroachment on the wildlife that belongs here.

As an area director for Proposition 117 (a state law approved by voters in 1990 that provides protection for wild animals), I spent many hours getting a law passed that would protect mountain lions and their habitat from being destroyed.

With dwindling food sources, mountain lions, coyotes, bears and other large animals will have no choice but to feed on domestic pets, which ignorant and uncaring owners leave unattended. Then these same people demand that predators be shot as a nuisance.

Mountain lions should be immediately declared an endangered species, thus forcing more strict regulations on who is allowed to shoot cougars and under what circumstances they may be shot.

LARRY JENNINGS, Orange