MountainLion_AnInnateHatred_Cuny_Lynn_KendaliaTexas_29March2021_Reel4050.mp3

Lynn Cuny [00:00:01] If you're proactive in trying to kill cougars because you have goats and you no longer have goats, then maybe your behavior is going to change. But I don't know that the feelings have changed.

Lynn Cuny [00:00:11] I still, I mean I, I, and some years ago, I sat in meetings, you know, where it was a lot of West Texas ranchers and people were talking about again, quote unquote, "elevating" the cougar to game status.

Lynn Cuny [00:00:25] And what I, I was just astounded by the attitude towards mountain lions by these people. And these are people, these are people who do live out in nature, more than most. They certainly don't live in a city - out in west Texas, they're very, you know, the human population is sparse. You would think that they, living closer to nature, would have a more profound respect for nature and love of nature.

Lynn Cuny [00:00:59] You would be wrong, really wrong.

Lynn Cuny [00:01:04] And their attitude towards predators was almost like this competition. "These are my goats and not their goats." Well,OK. I'll, I mean, it was just ... what do you mean they're not their, of course, they're not their goats.

Lynn Cuny [00:01:20] But can you not just be reasonable and think that if you put somebody out there who they normally would see as someone to eat that they're going to do that? It's not malicious. It's not because they're competing with you. They're just trying to stay alive. And you've given them someone to eat.

Lynn Cuny [00:01:38] But it couldn't ever, they couldn't, anyone, the ones I talked to, could never seem to just, "well, yeah, I guess that makes sense."

Lynn Cuny [00:01:44] It was never that. It was, "No, no, these are my, they're not their goats", you know. You know, i was just, it was absurd.

Lynn Cuny [00:01:53] And I, so I don't know if those people's attitude toward the species has changed. Like I say, even if they don't have the same motivation for killing them. I don't know. I, I would be surprised, I would be surprised if they had a gun, saw a cougar, and didn't shoot even though they didn't have goats. I might be wrong. I hope I'm wrong, but I would be surprised if they didn't try to kill that cougar.

Lynn Cuny [00:02:15] I've had lengthy discussions about that very topic with all manner of people, and it's come down to everything from competition, to a macho thing, to wanting to kill the feminine in nature, to, I mean, truly, I don't know. I don't know if the people who feel that way, understand it themselves. I know what they say about how they feel, but what they say doesn't make any sense.

Lynn Cuny [00:02:47] I think it comes down to something purely emotional. I think it comes down to something in their gut. I think that probably they're, they, you know, because some of these people, when I had some of these meetings years ago, their sons were there and I was thinking, well, maybe there's some hope here. Well, they'd already polluted their sons to believing what they believed, which is the old, "the only good predator is a dead predator."

Lynn Cuny [00:03:07] But when you try to get down to the, "but, why? Why?"

Lynn Cuny [00:03:12] Because we even, we were even able to establish a fund where we said to them, "OK." And I know other states have done this. "OK, you've lost three goats to mountain lions, and you show us that it is definitely mountain lion, you will not lose a penny. There is a fund. You will get your money back. OK? Now you don't have kill the mountain lions." "No, no, no, no, no. Uh uh. We're going to kill them anyway."

Lynn Cuny [00:03:35] OK, so it's not about the goats then. It's not about your money.

Lynn Cuny [00:03:39] I mean, there's just this, I don't know, this innate hatred of them, and I certainly don't understand it.

Lynn Cuny [00:03:44] And I really, I really have to say I don't think they do either. Frankly, I really don't think they do.