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California banned mountain lion hunting, and now they’re still killing mountain lions anyway, except it’s costing taxpayers roughly $10,000 per lion, with some estimates running far higher. That is the perfect summary of California wildlife policy. They took away regulated hunting, took away the tags, took away the hunter-funded conservation money, and then when lions started killing livestock or becoming a problem, the state government still had to remove them. Same dead mountain lion. Only now instead of hunters paying for the opportunity and funding conservation, taxpayers get stuck paying for government-managed removals. California didn’t save the lions. They just made the whole thing dumber and more expensive. — Stephen Ziegler