A couple weeks ago, a young mountain lion was found resting in a tree of someone's backyard (in town). Of course, that young lion was immediately killed by wildlife officials. Before this some time ago, the same fate was dealt to a black bear cub also found in someone's yard and also in a tree. Mountain lions are becoming more visible along the edges of town. I believe one attacked a kid in his yard a while ago. Maybe it was his dog that was attacked. Antelope and deer have become a fixed part of the city. Problem is good old urban sprawl. These animals have nowhere left to go. People have developed the animal's usual habitats and then come whining and killing when the animals try to come back home. Houses being built here in Big Sky country are HUGE and causing a lot of sprawl. I wonder what family really needs something the size of a motel to live in? And worse yet, the houses are nearly all up for sale! In the meantime, the already developed housing sits idle because all the people want the huge new houses. So a perfectly fine inner city is becoming underappreciated while animals' territory is being destroyed by people buying homes that they soon realize they cannot afford. I really don't see a positive future for animals unless this whole "let's exploit it all" way of life changes completely.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
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4 comments:
Wow - That is horrible. I currently live in Massachusetts, but I grew up in the woods in Maine. We once had a bear eating out of the dumpster behind the first restaurant I worked at. The solution was to place a giant (humane) cage nearby and try to catch the bear. Sure enough, he was soon caught and relocated to the nearest Wildlife Refuge, completely unharmed.
Even here in Mass, animals are not killed for being in the way. They are tranqualized and placed in a less populated area. It is very sad to think that we took over their homes, and are now taking away their lives.
I have a really big backyard. If you find another animal, let me know - I have plenty of room to rent.
It's good to know that animals back East are not meeting the same fate as most of them out here. Funny too because we have far more open land and less population. Certainly we could find somewhere for these animals if we really tried. I love hearing about the animal situation in other part of the country & world.
Here in Vancouver the bears come over the large North Shore mountains that are wilderness for about 600 miles to the north, they have always come over the mountians. The bear population is believed to be on the increase. We get them in other areas of the Lower Mainland (the greater Vancouver area), but most come over the mountians.
I just posted a some bear photos on my blog if you are interested (including of the famous Berlin Zoo polar bear Knut).
This is an issue of concern for me as well: We are encroaching on their lands, not the other way around, and need to find some compromise. I'm tired of hearing of animals killed because they're trying to survive!
Oh, and thanks for the kind comments on my blog http://victoryachasegoestotherapy.blogspot.com
We're all in this together, animals too (or especially) we really need to learn to work together to allow them to survive peacefully.
Cheers!
Victorya
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