Mountain Lions

Re “Too Close to Home,” Sept. 6, concerning the mountain lions:

As population explosion and developers’ greed keep encroaching upon the domain of the lion, the lion is always the loser. The state is inept in any leeffort to curtail development and protect our wildlife. California is rapidly becoming a disgusting place to live.

JOAN RICHARDSON

San Clemente

The “proper use of our wildlife heritage in this day and age” (as Mark Palmer, executive director of the Mountain Lion Foundation expressed it) stands in danger of abuse by so-called “sportsmen” and hunter groups who seem bent on destroying the wild cougars in California.

People like Dan Heal, chairman of the California Sportsmen’s Task Force, who hunt for the pleasure of killing wild animals, would have you believe that unless they are allowed legal hunting of cougars, these animals will overrun the wild, endangering everyone who goes there. This is, of course, ridiculous.

The voters’ endorsement of existing statutes providing protection for these animals should stand as a symbol for wildlife preservation in California and elsewhere.

JAMES C. KERR

Laguna Beach

Re “Too Close to Home:” Who is too close to whose home?

CAROLE IVERSON

Santa Barbara