Letters to the Editor: Did we really have no choice but to kill a cougar that attacked a boy?

To the editor: We simply have lost our respect and appreciation for how the world operates outside our bureaucratized human minds. (“Why did authorities kill Malibu puma who attacked a boy? ‘We don’t have mountain lion jail,’” Sept. 4)

A mountain lion was killed after it attacked a 5-year-old child. That we “had no choice” but to kill an animal that did nothing but exist in the only way it knows how is a condemnation of human beings.

Like the lions, we are mortal beings made of flesh and blood. We cannot stop other creatures from inconveniently trying to retain their homes while being hungry or scared, any more than we can stop our fellow humans from sometimes inconveniently being unhoused, hungry and scared.

While I empathize with people attempting to reconnect with nature, it is our expectation of absolute safety and control that will ensure we no longer have an environment outside ourselves to appreciate.

Our “responsibility” to kill a threat should include accountability for the environmental degradation we turn away from every day.

Matthew Neel, Sherman Oaks

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To the editor: The human race — what an ironic joke on this planet.

When innocent children are murdered by some deranged individual because it’s so easy to get a military-style assault rifle in the U.S., it’s just a part of living in this country. But when a mountain lion is killed after attacking a 5-year-old child in California, you’d think the world has come to an end.

Well, guess what? After we destroy Earth’s welcome mat for plants and animals, we will destroy whatever link humans have to maintaining life on this planet.

After we’re gone, the Earth will survive for another round of idiotic human beings. What a plan.

Dave Novis, Santa Barbara