December 1, 2016


News and Views


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/11/30/trump-announces-he-will-leave-business-in-total-leaving-open-how-he-will-avoid-conflicts-of-interest/?utm_term=.fb11ad08a5a9

Business
Trump announces he will leave business ‘in total’ — leaving open how he will avoid conflicts of interest
By Drew Harwell
November 30 at 7:34 AM

Photograph – Donald Trump delivers a policy speech during a campaign stop on June 28 in Monessen PA (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
RELATED: Pence, Priebus address Trump’s potential conflicts of interest Play Video2:01
Vice President-elect Mike Pence and President-elect Donald Trump’s chief of staff Reince Priebus on Nov. 20 addressed Trump’s potential conflicts of interest. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
[A scramble to assess the dangers of President-elect Donald Trump’s global business empire]
[Trump’s presidency, overseas business deals and relations with foreign governments could all become intertwined]
[A running list of how Donald Trump’s new position may be helping his business interests]


President-elect Donald J. Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that he would soon leave his “great business in total” to focus on the presidency, a response to growing worries over the businessman-in-chief’s conflicts of interest around the globe.

The announcement marks a turn from Trump’s months-long refusal to distance himself from his private business while holding the highest public office.

But it remained unclear whether the new arrangement would include a full sale of Trump’s stake or, as he has offered before, a ceding of company management to his children, which ethics advisers have said would not resolve worries that the business could still influence his decisions in the Oval Office.

“I will be holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on December 15 to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump tweeted.

“While I am not mandated to do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as President, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses. Hence, legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations. The Presidency is a far more important task!”

Presidents are not bound by the strict conflict-of-interest laws governing most U.S. elected officials. But most modern presidents have agreed to sell or sequester their assets in a “blind trust,” led by an independent manager with supreme control, in order to keep past business deals, investments and relationships from influencing their White House term.

Giving company management to his children — Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka — would still leave open the potential for Trump to make presidential decisions for their benefit. The children have already played a key part in Trump’s governing preparations, serving on the transition team now selecting key appointees and sitting in on meetings with foreign heads of state.

Trump spokespeople did not immediately return requests for more details on the move. But Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, said the move did not appear to offer enough of a division to keep entanglement worries at bay.

“That’s business operations, not ownership. The problem is, we need to resolve the conflicts of interest that arise from his ownership. And we’re hearing nothing about how that’s getting resolved,” Painter said.

“Even if he does not operate the businesses, you’re going to have lots of people working for the business running around the world trying to cut deals,” Painter added. “And it’s critical that none of those people discuss U.S. business in a way that could be interpreted, or misinterpreted, of offering quid pro quo … or soliciting a bribe on the part of the president.”

If Trump’s family does take over management of the business, Norman Eisen, the chief White House ethics lawyer for President Obama from 2009 to 2011, said an “ethics firewall” would need to be put in place to combat the “risk of improper preferential relationships and treatment for the Trump Organization with the United States government and foreign ones.”

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that he was not “ready to reveal” whether the move would include Trump truly severing ties to his business or whether he would simply leave the day-to-day operations to his kids.

“It’s not the easiest thing to work out,” Priebus said. “What you see in those tweets is the person at the top that understands and is willing and showing the American people that he’s working hard on it and he’s taking it seriously.”

The weeks since Trump’s electoral victory have been marked by a series of entanglements between his private ventures and public ambitions.

Trump welcomed a group of Indian business executives to meet with him and his family at Trump Tower, where talk turned to the potential for new real-estate deals. Trump and his daughter, Ivanka, who will likely play a key part in running the company, met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during Trump’s first meeting as president-elect with a foreign government leader.

His company, the Trump Organization, has over the years sealed lucrative real-estate and branding deals for business in at least 18 countries and territories across the world, including in places where the U.S. has sensitive diplomatic ties, such as Turkey, Azerbaijan and India.

Trump’s company is also pitching foreign diplomats on his new luxury hotel in Washington as a place to book rooms and hold meetings. But such entreaties eventually could run afoul of an “emoluments” clause in the U.S. Constitution that bars the president from accepting gifts from foreign leaders — even if he is not actively running the company.

Eric Trump also traveled to Turkey this week to hunt wild deer at the invitation of a Turkish businessman, according to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet. Trump’s company has made millions off licensing the name to Trump Towers Istanbul, a luxury project in a country under close scrutiny by U.S. diplomats.

Buffeted by entanglement worries, Trump has largely dug in, arguing “the law’s totally on my side, meaning, the president can’t have a conflict of interest” last week in an interview with the New York Times.

“In theory I could run my business perfectly, and then run the country perfectly,” Trump said. “But I would like to do something. I would like to try and formalize something, because I don’t care about my business.”

Peter Schweizer, a conservative author who raised alarms in the book “Clinton Cash” about Hillary Clinton’s possible conflicts of interest because of donations to her family’s foundation, said Trump will face an equally skeptical public, not just about his entanglements but those of his children as well.

“It’s incumbent on the president of the United States, particularly one who is seemingly committed to ‘draining the swamp,’ to remove any questions about financial transactions involving him or his family,” said Schweizer, who is also close to Trump senior adviser Stephen K. Bannon, who served as chairman of the Government Accountability Institute, where Schweizer is president.

“Foreign entities look at family members as a route to gaining influence and getting special favors. It’s not a question of if it’s going to happen — it’s going to happen. The best thing he could do is set up mechanisms now to avoid those pitfalls that invariably surround presidential families.”

He suggested both Trump and his adult children voluntarily submit to quarterly in-depth disclosures about their financial holdings and major Trump Organization financial transactions, even though the law does not require it.

He also proposed that Trump’s charitable foundation cease accepting donations from non-family members and that Trump’s children agree they will not accept paid speaking engagements for fees larger than those they were paid before their father was elected president.

Michael Toner, who served as general counsel to the Bush-Cheney transition in 2000, recalled the 10-week post-election period as a time for setting broad ethical policy — and considering specific safeguards for the incoming president — that would set the tone for the incoming administration.

At the time of the Kennedy-Johnson transition, Lyndon Johnson separated himself from the Texas radio stations he operated, drawing up new ownership documents putting his wife, Lady Bird, in charge and removing himself, at least officially, from the company’s operations. After his election in 1976, Jimmy Carter set up elaborate arrangements to remove himself from the family peanut business, its management and knowledge of day to day decisions.

For decades incoming presidents and vice presidents have used the inaugural period to meet with federal ethics officials to take steps, such as setting up blind trusts, to remove themselves from their previous business activities and investments. The idea, Toner and others said, is to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.

One of Trump’s most visible potential entanglements, even under a potentially new business arrangement, would be Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C., the new luxury hotel he opened in the White House’s backyard.

Charging his children with running the Trump Organization also does not necessarily protect against potential contractual or constitutional violations his presidency may trigger in regards to his D.C. hotel, legal experts say. Trump remains the majority owner of the project, which the company leases from the federal government.

Trump opened the hotel this fall after spending $42 million of his own money and borrowing another $170 million to foot the cost of construction. There is a provision in the lease allowing Trump to sell or transfer his stake in the hotel to “any Trump Family Member.” Selling it to an outside entity would likely require approval by the General Services Administration.

If Trump chooses not to sell, his ownership stake could create two problems once he steps into office. A boilerplate 88-word lease measure may require that the government terminate the deal because it bars “an elected official of the Government of the United States” from having “any share or part of this Lease.”

[For foreign diplomats, Trump hotel is place to be]

Procurement experts Steven L. Schooner and Daniel I. Gordon have argued the GSA ought to terminate its deal with Trump because of that clause, writing in The Post a week after the election that “having the president’s adult children negotiate with the staff of the president’s appointee at GSA presents what any reasonable person would view as the appearance of a conflict of interest.”

Schooner, a George Washington University law professor, said in an email Monday that he worried GSA officials wouldn’t terminate the lease out of risk of financial penalties or “intimidation” from the incoming president.

But Steven J. Kelman, a former administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in the Office of Management and Budget, said the passage may apply only to elected officials at the time of lease negotiations.

Even if it’s not a violation of the lease, putting his children in charge would leave them to negotiate with Trump administration officials over the deal going forward. The official who oversaw the selection of Trump for the project, Robert A. Peck, said recently that he couldn’t imagine the average federal employee feeling much empowered to negotiate with one of Trump’s children while they also advised their father in the White House, if he holds on to the property.

“It would be one thing if his kids ran the business, if his kids didn’t also want to be White House advisers,” Peck said. “But even then, the specter of some … contracting officers sitting across the table from Eric Trump. How does that feel?”

Rosalind S. Helderman, Jonathan O’Connell and Tom Hamburger contributed to this report.
Drew Harwell is a national business reporter at The Washington Post. Follow @drewharwell



In the royal governments around the world I suppose those people are not bound by laws on the matter of how much wealth they have or how they manage to treat everyone fairly in business and government arrangements. The Queen of England did get into trouble about twenty years ago over the fact that she paid no taxes, and was at that time considered to be “the wealthiest woman on earth.” There was some “kerfuffle” in Parliament, and she fairly quickly agreed to start paying at least some tax. The Royal Family is having to tighten their belts also, though I’m sure they still eat only at the finest places and never wear their ball gowns more than once.

Since WWI, the lives of the very rich and very famous have become a little more restricted. My 1890 to 1920’s literature course covered a period of time called “The Gilded Age,” and the wealthy were very wealthy indeed, while the “working class” worked for pennies. A truly great piece of literature that is also highly informative of that time period is “The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. We are again, in the US at least, at a very similar time period. The only good news is that Franklin Delano Roosevelt set up the Social Security system to give the elderly a small guaranteed income. Ever since that time, the Republicans, some of them at least, have been trying to cut the SS and SSI incomes so our government can be SMALLER and more responsive to the Military and to Big Business, giving them more money to keep. The fact that the major manufacturing, mining, energy, insurance, pharmaceutical, and banking industries will have more “help” from the government makes the Republicans happy, and the poor and working classes sad.

It is especially galling and yes, sad, to me to think about the fact that some corrupt politicians and the Supreme Court got together and declared corporations to have the legal status of a “person.” That has resulted in their now having the right to give directly and in dangerously large amounts to responsive and friendly political candidates, “religious rights” such as the right to withhold abortion money from women who work for them, and also a greater freedom from taxation. Most of these came from a Supreme Court case called commonly “Citizens United.” It makes the onward march of our (already established in practice) Oligarchy more likely to intensify and become a part of new laws when politicos “do their masters’ bidding!”

Whatever portion of the Constitution which allows that particularly damaging construction should be ruthlessly rewritten. There has been a push for a new Constitutional convention from the right to cut the benefits to the poor and eliminate the right to an abortion, but I would welcome that new and thorough examination of the law if the liberal/progressive side will have full participation in what is removed, changed, or inserted. I agree with them on the fact that our laws are outdated, poorly written, and slanted strongly toward the wealthy. Our democrats and other liberals will have to stand up strongly and be counted, however. We have become wimps in my opinion, and how can we expect our constituencies to respect us enough to reelect us, is beyond my understanding.

On corporate personhood, go to the following extensive article:

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/mayer_personalizing/

Personalizing the Impersonal: Corporations and the Bill of Rights
By Carl J. Mayer
As Published by Hastings Law Journal,
Hastings College of Law at University of California
March, 1990; Volume 41, No. 3

“Editor’s note: This lengthy law review article offers the most thorough legal analysis to date of the process by which corporations have seized specific constitutional rights and makes clear our problems go back much further than Citizens United v FEC. For anyone relatively new to exploring corporate personhood, we suggest starting with a look at this comprehensive web page. . . . .”


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kevin-murray-woodland-hills-principal-placed-on-leave-for-video-of-him-threatening-student/

Principal placed on leave for video of him threatening student
CBS NEWS
December 1, 2016, 5:28 PM

Photograph -- Kevin Murray, the principal of Woodland Hills High School, has been placed on leave after a video surfaced of him berating a student. CBS PITTSBURGH


PITTSBURGH -- A Pittsburgh-area high school principal has been placed on administrative leave after a recording surfaced of him allegedly berating a student, CBS Pittsburgh reports.

On Wednesday, Woodland Hills Superintendent Alan Johnson confirmed that Kevin Murray was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

The 14-year-old student said the principal often harasses him and allegedly speaks to him in a threatening manner and uses expletives. On one occasion, the teen recorded it.

That recording was made back in April, while the boy was being reprimanded for a previous incident.

During the incident, the principal is allegedly caught on the recording saying among other things, “I’m going to [expletive] punch you in the face. Man-to-man, bro. I don’t care if you are [expletive] 14 years old or not. I will punch you in your face, and when we go down to court, it’s your word against mine, and mine wins every time.”

“Obviously, what I heard there is not something that we would condone as a school district,” Johnson said.

According to the family’s attorney, Todd Hollis, there were several other incidents involving the boy and Murray.

Hollis says the threats and harassment have gone on throughout the school year against the “special education” student.

“The cultural problem at Woodland Hills has to be changed, and I don’t think that simply placing the principal on administrative leave is going to change that,” said Hollis.

But Johnson says it’s standard to place an employee on paid leave during an investigation. Hollis isn’t happy.

“I am getting calls from parents, educators, even some police officers who are saying to me this behavior is not unusual and it seems apparent to me that the superintendent is aware of it,” said Hollis. “Being on paid administrative leave isn’t termination, it’s a vacation. That’s not enough.”

Hollis says his client remains in school.

“The child is in school, but the child was apparently being harassed by some teachers in the school and ran to his counselors office today,” Hollis said.

He is urging others to come forward.

“I am reaching out to every parent that is aware of this. Call my office, get in touch with me, email, Facebook, I will be happy to address the problem,” Hollis said.

He says he has not had a sit-down meeting with the superintendent yet.



http://triblive.com/local/allegheny/11564761-74/johnson-principal-hills

Woodland Hills principal placed on leave amid allegations he threatened student
BEN SCHMITT | Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016, 11:33 a.m.


GO TO WEBSITE: THREATS RECORDED - (EXPLICIT CONTENT)


The Woodland Hills High School principal was placed on administrative leave Wednesday after a recording surfaced of him allegedly threatening a student.

Woodland Hills Superintendent Alan Johnson said the decision to place Kevin Murray on leave is standard as fact-finding commences. The Churchill police department also has been notified, Johnson said.

Johnson said the 14-year-old male student's mother met with him before Thanksgiving break to play the audio in which a man, believed to be Murray, can be heard saying, "I'll punch you right in your face, dude," and "I'll knock your (expletive) teeth down your throat."

The superintendent and child's mother were scheduled to meet again Tuesday, but she called and canceled, saying she had retained an attorney, Johnson said.

The teen's attorney, Todd Hollis of Pittsburgh, told the Tribune-Review the teen recorded Murray, apparently with a phone, because his mother did not initially believe her son's version of events.

"My client indicated to me that he was being bullied, threatened and harassed by the principal, Kevin Murray, on more than one occasion," Hollis said. "That can't be tolerated. Any parent sending their child to school expects their kid would be sent to a safe environment. The child felt like he had to tape it because his credibility was at issue."

Murray did not return an email message seeking comment and could not be reached. Murray has been told not to discuss the incident, Johnson said.

Of the recording, Johnson said, "It's obviously harsh language that I do not condone. The allegation is of a serious nature, and we have to investigate."

The recording is from an April incident, Johnson said.

The incident in question stemmed from a disciplinary meeting after the student called a teacher a derogatory name, Hollis said. He said the teen is categorized as a "special education student" and has an individualized educational plan.

"This is a child with limited ability, and regardless of whether he has specific limitations, he is still a child," Hollis said. "No child should be talked to in that manner."

In another portion of the recording, the man tells the teen he would prevail in court.

"When we go down to court, it's your word versus mine. And mine wins every time," a man can be heard saying.

Johnson said the child's mother took the recording to several police departments and then turned to him when police declined to take action.

Woodland Hills High School is located in Churchill. Churchill police Chief Allen Park did not return a message Wednesday.

Johnson said he plans an in-depth investigation that will examine how the student recorded the conversation.

Johnson said Murray is in his second year as principal and was an assistant principal at the high school before that.

"It would be unfair to be quick to judge the principal based on a single incident," he said. "Woodland Hills has done a tremendous job under his leadership — we have cut down significantly on suspensions. This is a good school with good teachers and good administrators. Hopefully, the public will give us a chance to work through and deal with it appropriately."

Ben Schmitt is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7991 or bschmitt@tribweb.com.



CBS EXCERPT – “The 14-year-old student said the principal often harasses him and allegedly speaks to him in a threatening manner and uses expletives. On one occasion, the teen recorded it. That recording was made back in April, while the boy was being reprimanded for a previous incident. During the incident, the principal is allegedly caught on the recording saying among other things, “I’m going to [expletive] punch you in the face. Man-to-man, bro. I don’t care if you are [expletive] 14 years old or not. I will punch you in your face, and when we go down to court, it’s your word against mine, and mine wins every time.” “Obviously, what I heard there is not something that we would condone as a school district,” Johnson said. . . . . Hollis says the threats and harassment have gone on throughout the school year against the “special education” student. “The cultural problem at Woodland Hills has to be changed, and I don’t think that simply placing the principal on administrative leave is going to change that,” said Hollis. According to the family’s attorney, Todd Hollis, there were several other incidents involving the boy and Murray. . . . . “I am getting calls from parents, educators, even some police officers who are saying to me this behavior is not unusual and it seems apparent to me that the superintendent is aware of it,” said Hollis. “Being on paid administrative leave isn’t termination, it’s a vacation. That’s not enough.” Hollis says his client remains in school. “The child is in school, but the child was apparently being harassed by some teachers in the school and ran to his counselors office today,” Hollis said.


TRIBLIVE EXCERPT – Johnson said the child's mother took the recording to several police departments and then turned to him when police declined to take action. Woodland Hills High School is located in Churchill. Churchill police Chief Allen Park did not return a message Wednesday. Johnson said he plans an in-depth investigation that will examine how the student recorded the conversation. . . . . "It would be unfair to be quick to judge the principal based on a single incident," he said. "Woodland Hills has done a tremendous job under his leadership — we have cut down significantly on suspensions. This is a good school with good teachers and good administrators. Hopefully, the public will give us a chance to work through and deal with it appropriately."


It's funny, but not “funny ha-ha,” how people in control of the defenseless, or nearly defenseless, in these situations duck and dodge about legally to protect themselves after they have been abusive and got caught. One of the two stories does say that the student a few days earlier had spoken abusively to a teacher. That isn’t good, but for the principal to threaten to knock out his teeth is shocking. I know “men will be men,” but that is totally disgusting. Besides, that kid had been abused by more than one, and the long term result of that kind of thing tends to be blind rage. They’re lucky he didn’t do something worse.

It’s fascinating that Johnson plans to investigate the kid for taping the interaction. That’s like the demonstrators since Ferguson who have been arrested, usually for a short time only because the cops have no case, for videotaping those rough interactions between police and community members. I’m glad this lawyer seems to be treating the matter in an assertive manner.

I’ll bet this school will have to pay for what they have done and condoned on the part of the smirking principal. Look at the photograph of his face in the CBS article above. Some really unqualified people are hired at schools. Of course, it’s hard in a small community to find a job that will make good use of a college degree, but the requirement of college isn’t enough. Teachers, police officers, medical doctors, etc. should be required to take one or more psychological tests before they are even offered the job. There are tests that will show a propensity for cruel or bullying behavior.


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rancher-mountain-lion-permit-kill-capture/

Rancher with permit to shoot marauding mountain lion doesn't plan to kill
CBS/AP
December 1, 2016, 3:51 PM

Photograph -- mountainlion.jpg, Mountain lion P-45. CBS NEWS
14 PHOTOS -- Big cats in a big city
Play VIDEO -- Southern California rancher cleared to hunt mountain lion preying on livestock
Photograph -- 1130-en-evanslionhuntrancher.jpg, Wendell Phillips CBS NEWS
Play video – CBS this morning of town meeting

NOTE: PLEASE DO GO THE WEBSITE AND LOOK AT THESE PHOTOS. THEY ARE EXCELLENT.

MALIBU, Calif. -- A Malibu ranch owner who obtained a rare 10-day permit on Monday to shoot and kill a mountain lion that has been slaughtering animals in the area is not planning to kill or capture the lion, her attorney said.

At a press conference on Thursday, Reid Breitman said his client, Victoria Vaughn-Perling, plans to install a permanent chain link fence on her property and get a dog that “specializes” in protecting livestock from predators.

He described the neighborhood she lives in as a “food court.”

The announcement followed uproar over the permit Vaughn-Perling received from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife this week after finding 10 of her alpacas dead last weekend. A mountain lion in the area known as P-45 is believed responsible for killing the docile, llama-like animals.

Hundreds of people have complained to wildlife officials since news of the permit began to spread. What was supposed to be a workshop Wednesday night for residents to learn how to protect their livestock was all but hijacked by animal activists who shouted their anger over the possibility that P-45 could be killed.

“It’s sickening that this animal is going to be executed,” one person wrote on the Facebook page of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Another wrote: “So they’re going to kill a lion for being a lion. Ridiculous and shameful.”

Vaughn-Perling, who had planned to attend the community meeting before she became afraid of getting death threats, told The Associated Press she has tried various strategies to protect her alpacas from P-45 following previous attacks, including adding motion lights and electrified fencing. She installed a roof on her alpaca enclosure after last weekend’s attack, and also said ahead of Thursday’s press conference that she preferred to have P-45 relocated rather than killed.

Her attorney, Breitman, told residents and activists at Wednesday’s community meeting that Vaughn-Perling has asked the Department of Fish and Wildlife to change her permit to allow P-45 to be safely captured and relocated to an animal sanctuary.

At Thursday’s press conference, she said the point of the permit was never to kill the animal, but to relocate it.

But even if Vaughn-Perling doesn’t plan to kill the lion, others still can.

“If that mountain lion wandered down in to Malibu city, it would be shot in a heart beat,” Vaughn-Perling said on Thursday.

She said that people are looking at P-45 as an important link in the breeding process.

Wendell Phillips, a neighbor of Vaughn-Perling’s, said he obtained his own permit to kill P-45 in March after some of his alpacas were attacked and that he shot at the cat back then and grazed it.

Phillips told CBS News: “No one wants to kill an animal, he is an animal I wish we could preserve his life. But I don’t want to keep donating my animals to the food chain.”

He said P-45 is believed to have killed more than 50 animals in the area in the last year and that the issue became personal for many when one woman’s longtime service animal, a miniature horse named Marco Polo, was killed last month, according to the Associated Press.

“People have to unfortunately come before animals and the call I’m afraid to get is, ‘My kid’s missing’ or ‘My wife’s been attacked,’” Phillips said. “Nobody wants that call.”

Phillips said he’s also in favor of having P-45 moved, “but I keep getting told by various agencies, ‘That’s against our policy.’”

“Well, if it comes to a head between the safety of my family and my animals and your policy, the safety of my family and animals is going to win.”

Seth Riley, a wildlife ecologist for the National Park Service, said neither P-45 nor the 52 other mountain lions studied by the agency in the region since 2002 have ever attacked a human and there’s no evidence that they would. He added that the cat’s killing of 10 alpacas in one night without feeding isn’t aberrant behavior.

“An animal gets into an enclosed space with a bunch of vulnerable prey animals that aren’t that smart or good at escape and they keep going after them until they aren’t moving around anymore,” Riley said.

P-45 is just one of three breeding males during the entire 14 years the animals have been studied in the region and it’s important to the species that he stay, Riley said. He and animal rights advocates say livestock can be kept safe if they’re in a roofed enclosure and that there’s no need to interfere with P-45’s behavior.

Roughly 6,000 mountain lions live in California. The largest group of them in Southern California roams just 40 miles from Los Angeles.

The National Park Service tracks many of the mountain lions, and P-45, as he’s known, has a GPS collar that logs every move.



EXCERPT – “But even if Vaughn-Perling doesn’t plan to kill the lion, others still can. “If that mountain lion wandered down in to Malibu city, it would be shot in a heart beat,” Vaughn-Perling said on Thursday. She said that people are looking at P-45 as an important link in the breeding process. . . . . Seth Riley, a wildlife ecologist for the National Park Service, said neither P-45 nor the 52 other mountain lions studied by the agency in the region since 2002 have ever attacked a human and there’s no evidence that they would. He added that the cat’s killing of 10 alpacas in one night without feeding isn’t aberrant behavior. “An animal gets into an enclosed space with a bunch of vulnerable prey animals that aren’t that smart or good at escape and they keep going after them until they aren’t moving around anymore,” Riley said. P-45 is just one of three breeding males during the entire 14 years the animals have been studied in the region and it’s important to the species that he stay, Riley said. He and animal rights advocates say livestock can be kept safe if they’re in a roofed enclosure and that there’s no need to interfere with P-45’s behavior.”


Vaughn-Perling has made three or more different efforts to protect her alpacas without shooting an amazingly beautiful cat. Her roof recently put on the enclosure is great, and her idea to get a large and aggressive dog is another one. Unfortunately, dogs like the presa canario, which are probably large and ferocious enough to handle a puma, have been involved in a number of human deaths. If the rancher’s whole property is walled off to keep the presa canario safely inside, perhaps that would be okay. Dogs are especially likely to attack unsupervised children, who have a tendency to make a lot of high pitched noises and move too fast, or throw rocks at the dog, causing dogs to consider them as prey or enemies. I do wish adults would teach their children how to behave around dogs and cats. No animal deserves to be picked up by its’ head, etc.

We have a problem several times each year of scary animals entering Jacksonville FL. We are in a river delta with woodlands coming up into town in parts, and there is nowhere here that doesn’t have at least a little water. Water draws alligators. I personally had a face to face with a small adult wild deer at the zoo. I first saw his tracks in the mud of a little creek there, and when I looked up, there it was staring at me. There have also been two adult black bears caught on camera inside the city. My favorite is the video of a black bear which got up in the homeowner’s backyard hammock and lay down on its back, apparently for fun! Bears are like dogs, in that they are intelligent enough to have seen the homeowner lying on his back in the hammock and decided to give it a try. There are adorable smaller animals as well here, such as raccoons and foxes, both of which unfortunately are sometimes rabid, especially if they show any intention of attacking. Any wild animal which menaces a human should be given lots of space, i.e., walk away in a rapid but deliberate manner. Running can invite an attack. That’s what prey animals do. All that said, I love animals, wild or tame, except for a few (bats, for instance).