I'm rooting for the lions

I have one friend who used to hunt. I'm not sure why he doesn't anymore, but I don't give him crap about it because I gave him enough crap about hunting when he was doing it. At least he ate what he killed and didn't mount animal body parts on the grill of his car or in his "den" as an alternative to actually wagging his dick around. No, he just went hunting quietly with his brothers and turned what he killed into food.

Last week, I heard a story on MPR about the issuance of permits to kill mountain lions. The story made me grumpy, so I filed it away in the back of my brain, adn now I've forgotten which part of the U.S. has so many mountain lions it needs dipshits to go kill them. Anyway. The woman being interviewed said she and her husband entered the lottery for elk every year, and were ecstatic to have their names drawn this year so they could "take down" some big animals. When they were given the opportunity to add on a mountain lion license for $15, they jumped at it because, as this woman put it, "It's the opportunity of a lifetime." Really? She's been waiting all her life to kill a mountain lion? Toward what end? She's not gonna eat it.

Look, I understand about thinning animal (I'm sorry: killing animals, let's not euphemize) populations "for their own good." I don't want mountain lions - or deer - starving to death. I really don't. But what's wrong with people who are so excited about killing things that they get all lathered up about killing something they can't even use?