Cattle More a Threat Than Lions

Although one can surely empathize with the Fillmore resident who witnessed the horror of his pet being killed by a mountain lion, the fact remains that objective data show that public safety does not require and is indeed not enhanced by the slaying of mountain lions.

Facts, not emotions, indicate that mountain lions are less a threat to public safety than most animals, including homo sapiens. Records show that since 1890 in the United States and Canada, 12 people have been killed by mountain lions. To put this figure in perspective, as recently reported in Audubon magazine, 50 herdsmen are gored to death by cattle each year. In other words, in 105 years, 12 people have been killed by mountain lions and 5,250 have been killed by cows.

I believe that most residents of Ventura County want wildlife in wilderness areas even if that means that those of us who choose to live close to or recreate within natural areas may have an encounter with the wildlife that lives there. After all, no one is forced to live or play where the lion might come.

Given our massive development of natural lands in Ventura County, surely with a little honest reflection, encounters between lions and humans should not surprise us. The real surprise is that so few of us have actually ever seen, let alone been attacked by, one of the lions who inhabit our surrounding wilderness.

Katherine Larson, Ventura