The 241 toll road is exceeding all expectations for its ability to exterminate wildlife.
As Scott Giffin revealed back in 1994 (Kill The Cougar, 6.10.04), toll roads through key animal habitat make for more roadkill than the Basra Turnpike. Yesterday's Register supported this observation when Erin Uy noted that a 200-pound female mountain lion was struck and killed in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
“It's not very common for mountain lions to be killed by cars”, according to Dept. of Fish and Game spokesman Patrick Foy. “Deer – all the time. Mountain lions – it happens, but it's fairly rare.” Deer are the lions' primary prey, just as animal habitat is the primary prey of the toll road.
This makes the fourth cougar killed in the last six years. The Transportation Corridor Agency is like a poorly-organized circus already, with its facades, misdirection and cheap trickery. But it seems this carnival doesn't need a lion tamer; it needs a lion undertaker.
