A local reporter friend of mine who works for the Daily Camera asked me today for my opinion on a controversial wildlife issue that has gotten some folks in these parts fairly heated. Here's what happened:

In the nearby weirdo infested town of Nederland, a man shot and killed a mountain lion that was attacking his 8 month old puppy. Sounds fair enough, until you realize the man had chained the little dog in his backyard through the night and the attack occurred at 2:30 AM. Originally touted as an act of heroic protection now has animal rights folks furious. Adding to the ignorance was the quote by the man:

"I'm from Wisconsin, that's how we get things done."

The guy now faces not only an illegal killing charge for slaughtering the mountain lion but mutiple animal cruelty charges for leaving the puppy outside without shelter. I'm certain he isn't speaking for the whole state of Wisconsin, unless getting "it" done means ingesting a full jar of mayonaise in one sitting, but this guy is an idiot. Tying up a puppy in an area where mountain lions frequent is like setting the hot dog buffet table for Kobayahsi. Keeping a loaded shotgun on your back porch is also a fairly questionable practice, especially when most animal conflicts be avoided by simple precautions. In the end, his logic was a simple solution (violence) from a simple mind.

Posted by James Dziezynski @ 8:42 AM