Lions, Tigers and Bears

Glenn Reynolds and John Hinderaker have noted the increase of wild animals encroaching on suburbia. I have long had a lot of deer in my yard eating fallen apples from our fruit trees. This year they nibbled on my new peach tree and injured the bark.

Local farmers have frequent trouble with deer and elk eating their hay. I occasionally see a coyote, but only about twice during the past 26 years. Lions and coyotes are still actively hunted here and trapping is allowed with a permit. I've never seen a mountain lion in the wild. But there a number of idiots environmentalists who want to bring back wolves into our mountains. They rhapsodize about being able to hear wolves howling while they're out camping. (I think more in terms of yellow eyes reflecting firelight from the shadows.) These are of a type with those who oppose hunting because men killed Bambi's mother, when it was actually his father who would be hunted. They didn't show Bambi starving to death because of deer overpopulation, but I suppose that would have been kind of cruel.

Wolves were wiped out here because they were the top predators and therefore in competition with humans, who are now the top predator, but I still keep hearing the argument that we need them back in order to have a healthy ecosystem.

My argument is this: domestic dogs are the same species as wolves. When a group of dogs get together and are not kept under control, they form a pack and become feral, and have to be destroyed. Why then, should we want to bring back feral dogs into our environment? It's the myth of the noble wolf, which is about as realistic as Bambi is regarding the life of a deer. I prefer that this issue be decided by democratic means, but with bureaucrats empowered to make such decisions, we're never safe from those yellow eyes.