The Beast in the Garden

David Baron's new book The Beast in the Garden is a story about the reintroduction of cougars into the forests around Boulder, Colorado. In this true story, he tells of how protection of wildlife and restricted hunting resulted in an increase in the number of cougars around the town. Some people became worried about safety, but at any meetings that were held to discuss the issue as many people showed up to "speak for the cougars" as were worried about the cougars. At first there were just sightings; then, pets started disappearing; eventually, the cougars started eating people. Cougars, he reminds us, are meat eaters.

One of the points of the story, as parable, is that there are real threats and no matter how much you ignore them or how much you explain them away, they are still real.

Now mountain lions are starting to eat people in Northern California. The LA Times ran an editorial written by an Alaskan (as reported by Instapundit) with this realistic advice:

I am puzzled now by the strange way people here are dealing with mountain lions — which is to say, letting them kill you. . . .

Why would anyone go into mountain lion country without the means to protect themselves from attack? I notice the police are armed. The wardens and rangers are armed. Indeed, anyone with any clue where they are would be armed.

You can read more here on this topic. In earlier days, people living near nature viewed animals like cougars and mountain lions as a risk to life and a competitor for game; they were so successful in controlling these risks that a good portion of this generation has ceased to think they really are dangerous and find the idea of living near a "wilderness area" idyllic rather than risky. The cost to relearn some of these lessons has been dear for some.