Signatures Needed to Formally Protect Mountain Lions in California

​worldanimalnews.com/your-voices-are-needed-before-april-16th-to-support-california-endangered-species-act-listing-california-mountain-lions/

On April 16th, the California Fish and Game Commission will hold a vote on whether to protect Mountain Lions under the ESA and signatures are needed to help convince them that this is a crucial and necessary step. Listing mountain lions under the ESA would allow the government to allocate necessary time and funds to properly protect the mountain lions before they go extinct. 

Listing mountain lions under the ESA would tackle some of the fundamental things going wrong in mountain lion conservation. For example, mountain lions are at extreme risk of vehicular collision due to continued freeway development and expansion, but with the ESA protections, funds could be allocated to much needed wildlife crossings which have been proven to significantly reduce animal & vehicle collisions. These crossings would allow mountain lions and other animals to move above the freeway without risking being slaughtered by traffic.

One of the things that always strikes me as odd and inefficient is the voting process to protect an animal that is going extinct. The fact that it has to come to some kind of vote that has the potential not to pass, leaving an animal further at risk of going extinct is completely flabbergasting. We shouldn't need to come together for some kind of vote on whether to protect a species when the facts laid before us are pretty striking. Mountain lions are on track to be extinct within 10 years in California if drastic protective measures are not taken, what is there to vote on? 

It is our responsibility as the dominant species on this planet to look out not only for the planet itself, but everything that inhabits it along with us. We have repeatedly failed that responsibility bestowed upon us because our salacious need for continued growth and development at any cost has put a plethora of species at risk of going extinct. We need to wake up and take responsibility for what we are doing and start taking the responsible and necessary steps to properly protect animals. Enough voting, we know what we need to do.

Please take the time to visit the link at the top of this post and lend your voice to a petition demanding mountain lions be protected under the ESA. Without these protections, mountain lions will disappear and it will be solely because of our inaction.

HAPPY VEG