Confederate Sharpshooter

It’s almost a daily thing now. But fear not, I have a solution:

Escaped lion shot dead at zoo
CANBERRA (Reuters) – Staff at an Australian zoo have received hate mail after shooting dead a lioness that escaped from its enclosure near a coastal resort and wandered toward visitors, the zoo owner said on Wednesday.
Visitors to Mogo Zoo, around 280 kms (174 miles) south of Sydney, were locked in safe houses for protection after a nine-year-old lioness named Jameila escaped. Staff were forced to shoot the wandering cat.
"I've never had to make that decision ever in my entire life, in a blink of an eye, and I did yesterday and everybody is safe," zoo owner Sally Padey told state radio.
Padey said she had received hate mail from people upset the animal, much-loved by zoo-goers, was killed rather than disabled with a tranquillizer dart to be re-confined.
"When you've got to make a split decision like I had to yesterday, especially with a lion that's so very dear to me, it's not easy," she said.
Zoo spokesman John Appleby said Jamelia had been raised from birth at the zoo and it was the first escape by one of its star big cats.
"She was moving quite slowly toward a public area, but under the circumstances a decision was made to put her down," Appleby told Australian Associated Press. (Reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

Ok, those of us old enough to remember looking forward to “Wild Kingdom” on Sunday nights saw Marlin Perkins hit the wild elephant from the helicopter with the crossbow loaded with narcotic-tipped bolts. Elephant goes sleepy-bye, and wakes up with a helluva hangover and a radio transponder, ear tag, and ‘vote democratic’ tattooed into her backside. But no real harm done, right? Sigh. Can somebody please explain to these emotion-filled morons how this stuff really works? Or would even that make a difference? I’m pretty sure some of the animal-lovers writing the hate mail would be happy to sacrifice a couple of humans- what’s mom and the kids compared to a magnificent caged lion anyhow?- to keep the zoo critters happy and healthy. Hey, we could start feeding kids under 12 to the felines to combat global warming! Why not?
Seriously, if you don’t think the zoo personell made the right call, consider a few facts: You were not there. You have no idea how close the lioness was to zoo visitors, nor do you know what the lioness may have done. Dart guns work instantly only in the movies- in real life it can take minutes to put a large animal down, and in the meantime the shock of being stuck with a sharp needle can startle a big cat into going into unhappy mode. A big cat can kill a strong man in seconds. A smaller person, woman, or child, won’t have a chance. And animal activists aside, a human life is more important than an animals, even a majestic lion. I’m sorry the animal had to be put down, and I certainly hope they figure out where the security went wrong and keep it from happening again. But the zookeepers made the right call. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to learn about wildlife first hand: drop yourself off in Africa and wander around the brush for a few weeks, and talk to all the animals you want. Get up close, perhaps the pretty kitty will let you pet her. There is a saying in the Dark Continent: Nothing in Africa dies of old age.