Letter: Cougar killing is regrettable

Talk about it

In talking to people about the recent shooting of the cougar, I’ve heard nothing but disdain.

The will to power started with the first two brothers. Cain killed Abel. People kill each other and certain animals because they think the world will be a better place without them. In the case of animals we eat this may be true, but after the killing of carnivores the world is usually a less interesting place.

The Bible makes a distinction between “clean” and “unclean” animals. Pigs, carnivores and the horse were not meant to be eaten. Their purpose was as companions, or to scavenge and cull out the weak and sick. Until the flood, men were not allowed to eat meat. After the flood, God allowed the eating of “clean” animals (most herbivores) in order to make life easier due to major environmental changes.

To kill everything that moves is an infantile impulse exhibited by men who have never grown up and learned to enjoy the natural world. Children have a natural fascination for nature, which ideally we should never outgrow.

In the movie “Unforgiven,” Clint Eastwood tells his young companion, who is having a fit of conscience after killing a cowboy who cut up a woman’s face, “Killing a man is a terrible thing; it takes all a man is and all he will ever be.” When the kid retorts that “he had it coming,” Clint replies, “We all have it coming.”

“What might have been” has haunted everyone in one way or another. We have all done things we should not have, or would have liked to have done differently.

Because cougars are dangerous to humans and prey on livestock, this issue will never be settled to everyone’s satisfaction.

Tags: opinion, letters