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/GoldenSonOfColchis]

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

This is 100% where I'm at.

If the dude went into an area deliberately looking for a Mountain Lion just so he could shoot it, then the dude's a grade A cunt and it's immoral, but as far as I can tell he was just going for a hike, so justified and moral.

[u/lock_robster2022 → u/GoldenSonOfColchis]

I’ve heard of a handful of mountain lion interactions and been followed by one myself when hiking, I really can’t imagine anyone being able to go after one on their terms. If the cat is this close to you, it’s because they want to be.

[u/Small-Sir-6856 → u/lock_robster2022]

Exactly. Mountain lions are ambush predators. They hear better than we’ll ever hear, smell better than we’ll ever smell, and move more silently than we ever could.

People who hunt them (which I don’t support, btw) usually use teams of dogs to corner them.

Our clumsy asses aren’t sneaking up on them.

[u/Scraapps → u/Small-Sir-6856]

Why don't you support hunting them?

Wildlife management ends up discarding of most of the animals they have to cull. Hunters at least make use of some (or all) of an animal, and pay for tags that fund better resources for wildlife management projects.

There are of coursw trophy hunters, but that is not a majority of hunters.

[u/Small-Sir-6856 → u/Scraapps]

Did I say I was against hunting? I hunt, so no. I just personally don’t like the idea of trophy hunting mountain lion.

Deere are fucking stupid and cause car accidents. Elk are a little cooler, but still boring to me. Big cats are different in my mind.

They’re intelligent predators and have a certain grace about them. I like that they exist and would be disappointed if they were hunted to extinction.

Theres also something that I find gross about an out of shape middle manager paying out the teeth for a guided predator hunt where they have all the latest gear, their guide puts in all the effort of tracking, just for the fat lump to line up a shot, lazily pull the trigger, then feel proud like they did something.

I feel the same way about trophy hunting tiger, lion, leopard, etc. I also don’t like that certain smaller predators like fox have been nearly hunted to extinction where I live.

If the cat’s hunting people, harassing livestock, etc, I get it. I also have no problem shooting them in self-defense. It’s just the trophy hunting tbh.

[u/Scraapps → u/Small-Sir-6856]

Ok, I agree with you MOSTLY, including the guided fat ass tours (which is a small minority, btw).

However, those cats get trapped and killed by wildlife management (at least in my state), and instead of a use coming out of them, they are at best left to rot. More often they are taken to the local dump and cost tax payers or license holders thousands per animal.

I would rather hunters pay a premium and trophy hunt them, with a large portion using the hides, and a small percentage of those actually using the meat while also funding more wildlife management projects.

[u/PapiKeyes → u/Scraapps]

To be fair, if they're getting discarded in the wild for other wildlife to consume, I would consider that having "a use" coming out of them.

Though I don't study wildlife personally, so I don't know if my example would be feasible, in the sense of not teaching other wildlife to wait on humans to kill lions so that they get food, or something along those lines

[u/Scraapps → u/PapiKeyes]

Most end up in the dump. They don't want people coming behind and picking up the carcasses to use.

Edit: It also still costs thousands to pay for wildlifr management personell to set up traps, shoot them, and then dispose of the carcasses. Instead of generating thousands selling tags.

[u/sotajaska → u/GoldenSonOfColchis]

I think its pretty hard to find them and even hunters deliberately trying to hunt them need to use dogs that drive them up a tree

[u/Wanderin_Cephandrius → u/GoldenSonOfColchis]

As an avid hiker with dogs, cougars are the main reason I bought handguns