“They’re wild animals, and they’re predators,” Mazzotti says. “Treating them with that small amount of respect and intelligence is the best thing we can do to live with them.”
No, the best thing is to make plain to them that certain areas are off-limits, and if it takes killing some of them to get that message across, so be it. Nature is not sentimental, and we should not be sentimental about nature.
Anyone contemplating the killing of innocent though potentially murderous animals who foolishly encroach upon the expanding human environment are advised to take note of PETA's over-the-top reaction to President Obama's recent "murder" of a common though annoying housefly. Perhaps the president could have avoided PETA's wrath by following Mazzotti's advice, in which case a disease-bearing, dung-eating pest could blissfully thrive in the White House. I suppose there is an editorial opportunity in all of that somewhere, but I'll take a pass on any further comment.
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