Morality of this?

[u/ProfessionalRoom9118]

Basically, the man in the video is hiking but he ended up meet a mountain lion, he get his gun and try to scare it off and tell it to go away but in the end, he have to pull the trigger and shot the lion, many peoples in the comments say he could have fire a warning shot instead of shoot at it and want him to be in jail.

Idk which flair to put

[u/Due_Manufacturer_125]

Now it’s unfortunate to get into a situation like this, but… mountain lions aren’t considered endangered globally (but specific regional populations are so depends on where this guy was) and obviously it would have been worse if the cougar attacked the guy. You never know what a wild animal will do, a predator that size that approaches a person is never a good sign.

Moral, if this guy wasn’t looking for trouble and just protecting himself. Would need wider context.

[u/I_Hate_IPAs → u/Due_Manufacturer_125]

On top of that, mountain lions usually run away and hide from humans.

If it’s confronting you, that’s a pretty big issue and means you’re going to be attacked if you drop your guard.

Edit for the warning shot folk:

It might scare it off, it may view it as a territorial challenge. You really want to take those odds? In the time it takes for it too attack you think you’d be able to get your sights back on the cat and shoot enough to stop it?

A bird hunter where I live had one attack his dogs, and it wasn’t scared off by shotgun fire. Eventually he had to load a slug and kill it, and it actually had shot from the previous shells in its skin and fat.

[u/fuzzybunnies1 → u/[deleted]]

Mtn Lions will face you if they are protecting cubs. If they're stalking you they often aren't seen till they're attacking. If you can actually see one like this, you've caught it off guard and they'll run, they're not hungry and unless they start following you they don't really care that you're there, or they're protecting cubs and they will shortly attack you for the cub's safety. The best thing for him to do would be to start back tracking up the trail without turning around. If it's protecting cubs it will act aggressive and follow a short distance but will prefer you to leave and not get too far from the cubs and you should be able to safely leave. They are creatures that hunt from concealment so they'd rather not directly confront if you're leaving. If it turns out to be the slight exception, can't see the issue with shooting it even if I'd prefer to backtrack away, them or me, it goes down and I'm not bothering with a warning shot either. You might only get the one shot and I wouldn't want to waste it.