Cecil The lion

I strongly believe that in the modern era there is no place for hunting animals for sport.

What bothers me more is that this guy is clearly educated and therefore must understand the plight that these and many of the other animals he has shot are in. So to still go ahead with this regardless just proves what a callous and abhorrent individual he is. He truly can't have a conscious, and how he (and others) live with themselves is completely beyond me.  

I wish the United States, for all it's 'greatness', would get it's act together on hunting and gun law. 

One things for sure, at this rate and in my / our life time(s), there are going to be some magnificent animals becoming extinct and the thought of other generations never seeing wild elephants, rhinos, lions, tigers saddens me greatly. 

Sadly, out of all the species that are alive today we are about the only ones that cannot keep a natural balance and the consequences of this are becoming more and more evident.

Ultimately, you have to ask yourself what will our (the human race) legacy be, total destruction! 

We're talking about killing things for pleasure. Not eating. It cannot be excused. Defocusing the discussion won't right this evil behaviour.

Harry, I agree with you totally

+1

I'm not trying to shift the focus from the appalling act of killing the lion - or other endangered species. You chose to argue against my post which was a response towards a few well meant, but far too heated responses against hunting in general. I'm merely trying to balance the view. You may dislike hunting and you are of course entitled to have that opinion and I will have mine.

Yes, it was. I am sorry, and at the same time I'm not. Calling a lion with a human name will manipulate me, and subtly induce me to have hyperbolic and inappropriate feelings for his adverse destiny. I despise most of the human race and most of human behaviours, but still believe that humans deserve at least the same degree of sympathy we so easily reserve for non human animals.

+2

Hat's off to that deer, I say.  

And me.

And me, of course.

The joy this video gave me, I can't explain.

More should be done to ban the killing and sale of (endangered) animals for "fad" medicines  or food and other stupid excuses.

Or killing people because of the existence of alleged chemical weapons?

Max,

No real need to apologize to anyone. Use of that photo to draw attention to the plight of an erroneously shot lion seemed to me inappropriate. Had you used the photo to draw attention to more significant African issues, I'd have deemed it wholly appropriate.

This is a 'chime in and feel good about yourself' topic. Bandwagon responses across the board with a lynch-mob mentality. Did anyone reply by saying they had donated to a related cause or rode their bike to work today instead of driving (secondarily addressing global warming and Cecil's habitat loss) or committed to a life-style choice to further African cats? Nothing but Ivory Tower* replies.

This particular hunt of an endangered animal gone bad will bring emotional responses. Similar hunts occur everyday throughout the world with no attention. The reality is the monies these expensive hunt permits provide give endangered species an economic value and help fund their management and long-term propagation in impoverished nations. Without such permits many of these animals would have been poached to extinction long ago.

There are hundreds of more important issues to be concerned with in Africa as a continent, let alone the individual nations. One example.... tribes of young women summarily raped by 'authorities'. Yet no banter here about that?

*Ivory Tower; a place or situation in which people make and discuss theories about problems (such as poverty and racism) without having any experience with those problems

I fail to see how the experience of being hunted (or lack of) diminishes anyone's replies personally. Being black or poor is what? Speaking from an ebony pit? You may casually dismiss 'white' responses to 'white' recreational activites, but one is definitely worse than the other. Looking into alternative models to sustain the unique African ecosystem is never going to be a cakewalk. No matter how much gratuitous hunting I voluntarily choose to avoid doing does not stop the killing. Conflating issues like this with poverty and man's inhumanity to man (or woman) is known as a technique called 'whataboutery', it's better to focus on stopping doing bad things THEN doing good things to help. White rhinos etc. will be gone before global warming drowns them. The tyrrany of greed, thrill seekers, lawbreakers, diasporas, civil conflict, big business Etc.

I reserve the right to get angry about this man's actions. If putting on bike clips for a day makes you think my ire is more 'worthy', they're on now, but does your approval make any difference to the situation in hand? How do I get out of the tower you put me in to ride my bike anyway?

Quoted like this, it seems I wrote the sentence. It was joerand's quote.

M

Yes, Max. You are right. My poor editing of the earlier post by joerand. My apologies to you sir. I think you and I have similar views on this topic

Mike  

A fair trial - in Zimbabwe? You do realise he's white and hunting big game as a leisure activity in a country where millions are starving and Mr Mugabe is running the country blaming white landowners for all the country's miseries? Two wrongs doesn't make a right...

And Joe's post was a sensible one. Hunting permissions granted and sold by most African countries with big game do in fact help preservation of the animals. There have been examples of landowners reintroducing rhinos in areas, money from hunting has helped research and breeding etc,

. The animals who are hunted are typically old and not fit for breeding. One may question the ethics, but if it helps preserve the animals from extinction then should we really oppose?

Mike,

You may be confusing an ethical argument with your opinion, or transposing your ethics on others. I consider the hunters I know to be ethical people and they follow ethical hunting practices. They probably derive some pleasure out of the activity of hunting, or why else would they do it? After all, it's a lot easier to order a steak in a restaurant or grab a pork roast at the grocery store.

Cecil's case is clearly a well publicized example of a hunt gone wrong, all the more egregious because he was an endangered species. I'll wait to hear all the facts. 

With regard to ethics, the OP's statement "Personally I would like to shoot this murderous F*** and mount his head" and similar sentiments echoed here hardly seem ethical to me, but that's just my opinion.

Wat,

Good point. Ecotourism is a great industry to draw attention to endangered species, promote their existence, and provide money for their welfare. But tourists snapping pictures doesn't enter into population management. Dwindling habitat is really the limiting factor. In the natural ecosystem of yesteryear predators and prey would go through boom and bust cycles that would balance their populations. Today managers have to provide that balance. As such, some top predators have to be culled so they don't exhaust their prey. Regulated hunting is a practical means of providing that check.

hafler3o,

Your points are well taken to a degree. There have been balanced responses here. My Ivory Tower reply was more directed at those that simply decry "hunting = bad", or imply that hunters have no ethics. Being moved to donate to an African lion cause is a direct means of action. Riding your bike to work perhaps more obtuse, but intended to point to the fact that that habitat loss in Africa (due to global warming) is a huge factor in the plight of African savannah animals. For some to snub hunting in general doesn't seem a substantive response. And yes, there are bigger issues to be concerned with in Africa than the death of a lion, but if you're angry about what happened to Cecil then take action, however indirect or minor.

Ok Joe I was a bit miffed, and have personally no idea what to do about 'Cecil' in any constructive manner, but if enough toothpaste consumers stop smiling someone will take notice I'm sure. I've signed the French online petition, got angry etc.

I was recently involved in the Badger cull protests, removing signage from parts of Wiltshire and Dorset that had 'accidentally' been marked by gun-happy landowners as designated for the cull when those areas appeared outside the stipulated cull areas. Fancy that, farmers trying to deceive the general public or discouraging them from going about their lawful business by thinking they might get shot when no legal shooting could be happening. And yes I lived in the countryside and have to make my arguments stand up to those who own and farm cattle. I don't sit in a cafe in Islington with trendy mates spouting hot air doing f'all!

If I put my voluntary cause CV on the table it would dwarf the one that puts bread on the table! I won't go into it but Oxfam (free accountancy work) Motor Neurone Disease (fundraising) Elizabeth Svendson (legacy) and Labrador Rescue (fostering and rehab.) are main 'causes'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-33748027

For those who enjoyed the 'deer-fights-back' video earlier in this thread, I thought this BBC news item had a similar sense of justice.