Since Ook and Eek were sitting around the fire grunting about how to kill that cave bear, predators have instilled fear in humans.
Killing scary predators seems like rational policy. Wolves and sharks are simply not warm and fuzzy, and besides, they eat what we want to eat.
Why waste a moment thinking about them?
Because they are a necessary part of evolutionary processes that are preconditions for a robust natural world.
Alas, our treatment of predators is a window into how divorced policy is from science, and how stupidly humans are going about dealing with our natural world. A couple of stories recently slapped me upside the head: