You make a good point, but your brush stroke is too broad. Lots of examples spring to mind of similar behavior, like the Italian and Maltese bird shooting habits. Do not be a small bird, and I do mean small, like a sparrow, in those two nations as the "hunting" instinct is to shoot them. The Maltese put song-birds in cages in their tiny rock-walled gardens to attract migrating birds to shoot.

But, in California, we did give the Mountain Lion a big reprieve and their numbers are in the 1,000s. Now much of California is split over this. If you live rurally and like to hunt deer, than you have one attitude toward the Lion, while if you are a green, or live in Frisco, you have a much different attitude. But there has been some agreement, and an occasional Lion wandering into a suburb does get shot, and lots in the north of the state if they are killing sheep or the like. And this is a heavily over-populated state.

Also, there has been much more cooperation of late between greens and union labor, or fishermen, in an attempt to strike a balance. This is much different that even a few years ago where it was all "my way or the highway."

You strike a chord here of a a modern phenomenon much discussed in the hiking community - that children today have a major disconnect with nature. Indeed most young adults have been reared in an environment that is air-conditioned and wired (TV, computers, etc.). Children are rarely seen outside playing any more. This is a problem that also worries some child psychologists as well.

The good news is that the last drop has already been preserved, and it's BIG:

"When the Maxwell House plant closed down in 1993, a few ... tried mightily to rescue the Hoboken plant's trademark coffee cup sign and its ever-flowing drops of coffee. The giant work of neon art had illuminated the Hudson River for decades, illustrating the company's slogan, "Good to the Last Drop." But ... former Maxwell House employees later told us the classic sign had been unceremoniously destroyed.

Then the reports started to come in: "The last drop was saved;" "I know the guy who's got the last drop." This past fall we learned the stories were true: ... Charles Moorman, who supervised the colossal cup's demolition, had retrieved the metal form for the smallest drop - a mere 12 feet high, three feet wide, and 200 - plus pounds -- and stored it in his Harrington Park backyard for six years... It awaits the restoration of its (expensive!) neon tubing and installation in our Museum space."

http://www.planetandy.com/mhc.html