Cecil The lion

Well yes, perhaps a bit of Karma. But nothing but a significantly inferior intelligence and psychopathic cruelty can explain why someone would want to shoot an armadillo in the first place. I am a superior person to that cruel and stupid idiot. I won't accept any argument that I am not.

I am waiting for the foxes to fight back.  I cannot find any such video however. It must be because, to be lawful, the fox must be shot "as quickly as possible."

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-sco...nd-politics-33516713

hafler3o,

Voluntary causes; great for you and I respect that! Meaningful action in my mind whatever the cause. I've also done volunteerism in my community and give great deal of consideration to ways of reducing my carbon footprint, both in my daily actions and overall lifestyle. Little steps taken by individuals can seem insignificant, but cumulative effects of masses can be grand, especially with regard to global warming .

If anyone wants to do something indirect for Cecil's cause and the loss of savannah habitat that has resulted from global warming, I'd offer just stay at home once when you don't really need to make that trip by car. Or ride your bike instead. Then do it a second time, and so on.

You may say I'm a dreamer ...

I read at an article in The Independent Eye at the weekend with Virginia Mc kInna who starred in the 1960 's film Born Free and she said that his death has led to more public awareness about enviromental and wildlife issues and raised the issues of sports hunting onto a bigger stage.

Maybe we shall see game Hunters named and Shamed in future.

I think the Dentist who killed cecil could be returning to face charges in Africa,hopefully.

+1

I don't wish to really get involved in such a one sided barrage against this man but would like to make two comments in general.

I suppose you were taking the moral high ground here (in your mind) with this type of threat against another human being?  It is lovely that you can type such things on your computer with such superiority but I don't suppose you did anything to protest the thousands of lions (and the like) that have been hunted over the centuries?  It is not likely that any British colonialists over the years ever did such a nasty things as they plundered the world and used it for all its worth, you think?   Oh, that's right, maybe you only protest this type of thing if the lion has a name and an American is involved?  British only kill lions that don't have cute names like Cecil, so those stories never make it on to the evening news.

So if you get this angry about a lion (named Cecil), I just wonder if you get just as angry about all the other injustices that occur everyday to our fellow human beings?  You realize, that humans tend to have names like Cecil, too, so maybe that would help fire you up?  Has anyone here done anything to help those fellow human beings all around us that are suffering at the hands of thieves, murderers, rapists, human traffickers, and abusers of all kinds?  ISIS is slicing the heads of people that hold different views than they and I wonder if this angers you?  

I thought not.  Everyone's just too busy following such important things like what is trending on social media.  Yet, we debate endlessly about one lion.  It just seems so sad that western society has declined in to the sewer and lacks any relevant values anymore.

I quite enjoy hunting and killing animals. If you mean by "hunting" shooting varmints such as rabbits and possums, both of which are introduced species and causing untold environmental damage where I come from. The main thing is to get a clean kill as it is much more humane. It gets me outside with fellow hunters and everyone enjoys themselves.

One day when fishing in the Marlborough sounds on our boat we came across a stag swimming in the water, 400m from the shore and making a good speed of 2 knots. We drew alongside and took some photos. Pleasingly it made shore and ran off, exhausted, into the bush.. A photo of our encounter was in the paper a few days later and I had a lot of feedback asking why we did not kill it. I however found the idea reprehensible, as to kill such a noble and vulnerable creature would be cowardly and despicable.

So yes, I have mixed feelings about hunting. To me the trophy hunters seem to have small penis syndrome, but I have no problems about culling pests cleanly.

Wat,

I wholly agree with your response to me (two above).

Hunters in exotic lands place a great deal of trust in their guides, and it seems there may have been a failure of ethics with the guides; however, the hunter is solely responsible in the end and should be held accountable. I'm just waiting for all the facts to be presented including the dentist's past history in related events. Hopefully justice will be served to all culpable parties involved. As you say, one benefit of this well publicized calamity may be greater attention to lion conservation in general. BTW and FWIW, I don't hunt, eat meat, or have any formerly living trophies on my wall. In my occupation, I've become familiar with numerous big game and fishing guides and consider them all to be trustworthy, ethical folks.

Floresten

Fair points you make.I must admit that my thread starter comment was a bit provocative saying I would like to shoot this muderous F*** and looking back it puts me on a level no better than the hunter.

However I was genuinely appaled by this persons actions and stand by that.

Where you appalled ?

I think the topic of animal welfare is straight forward. Like many others here, I too am disgusted by the idea of trophy hunting. I am equally disgusted by bull fighting, as well as by dog and cock fighting. I would love to see all types of ritualized animal cruelty outlawed.

But I think the topic of species conservation is more complex. The cost of preserving habitat, and of preventing illegal poaching, is very high, and it is being shouldered by some of the poorest, most broken countries on the planet. In Zimbabwe, the devastating effects of illegal poaching by locals in national parks far outweighs those of a limited number of licensed trophy hunts on private land. Do the license fees paid by foreign hunters to the government help to offset some of these costs? In theory perhaps, but I suspect that corruption results in the majority of the revenue being diverted elsewhere.

I have no empathy with this or any other trophy hunter, but I will concede that he paid a lot of money to legally kill a lion. He also appears to have hired guides who claimed to be experienced, licensed professionals. He says he followed the laws of the host country, but that he was misled by the guides. Could be true, or it could be a bunch of lies. And while a trial could bring some answers, the question the U.S. government now faces is whether or not this person could get a fair trial in Zimbabwe. Given the overwhelming international publicity, and given the long record of corruption and human rights abuses under the Mugabe dictatorship, I think that is a valid question to ask.

Of course, Zimbabwe could prevent this from ever happening again by banning trophy hunting. But at $50,000+ per lion, am sure those who benefit will fight against this. And, of course, a ban will do nothing to address the much larger issues of illegal poaching and disappearing habitat.

ATB.

Hook

Your whole post can be reduced to those three words, but cheer up, my opinion doesn't matter, as I'm one of those people who cannot possibly 'feel' for humanity because I 'feel' for an animal that should have been able to live it's life free from fear of being murdered by a human. Try and think of the animal as a dumb human, rather than something to be treated as sub-human. How far 'down' can your empathy go? Can you only get a 'feel' about things like the actions of ISIS, or is that hunter better than ISIS and the lion deserved it? Or are you so emotionally crippled you have to project your stunted empathic abilities onto others? I'm mystified by the social media snobbery too, your post reeks of it.

If western society has declined so far, it's time you left. Leave clearing up the mess to those strong of arm and mind. Please let me know when you are going so I can wave the 'B' ark off.

Tabby,

Yes, I was appalled too.  Please do not misunderstand my post as I was only trying to add some perspective, in my view.

Full disclosure:  I do not hunt - have never and will never.  I agree with everyone here on this point and I find the act of hunting wild life to be a disgusting exercise for anyone to participate in.  It is completely revolting to me.

My only point was that this activity has been occurring for centuries.  If it is this story that gets everyone motivated to hopefully force changes then that is great but I only question why it took this long.  I would suspect thousands of lions have been killed in a similar fashion over time?  If wild game hunting could be banned worldwide tomorrow, I would be the first one in line to back such a cause.

If this man broke the law then he should face the consequences.  If he did not break any law, then I don't believe it is anyones right to "name and shame."  What needs to happen is people need to focus their energies on trying to change the laws to make this sort of thing illegal - period.

Maybe my point is that if we have never as a human race been able to stop men from killing other men (and females too) then what hope is there to protect wildlife?  Both questions bother me and this is why I ventured in here only to muse about it a little.  I hope you can relate?

Everyone in this thread are appalled by the hunting of endangered animals, but Joe's post goes a long way of explaining possible benefits of regulated big game hunting. Food for thought...

Still, what really upsets me is the fact that hunting with bow and arrow is permitted! That's just insane and plane cruel as it lacks the presicion and impact of a proper caliber. In this case the lion wandered for more or less a day with pain inflicted by an arrow. Large injured animals are also very dangerous..

Florestan,

It really saddens me too the human races inability to stop killling each other.I find it amazing that we can discover space make advances in science and medicine yet the last 200 years of industrialisation has caused more enviromental damage then previous centuries.

As you say what chance has wildlife got?

Throw in world capitalism and the consumer society we live in  and its not looking good.

I do hope that Cecils death has raised public interest into endangered species.

I also think as a human race if we lived longer, say 500 years we would plan more for the future.

Rather than these global summits where alot of nice speeches get said but nothing changes.

My bet, if I were a betting man, is that the "public interest" will fade as quickly as the myriad Facebook posts and tweets scroll off the viewscreen and into "posting history." 

The public gets all riled up, people post that the hunter should be killed and his own head mounted . . . . oh wait there's a football match . . . . there is a court case about deflated footballs . . . . Donald Trump called Rosie O'Donnell "fat and ugly" . . . . did someone say something about some lion?? Wha??

What's for dinner??

Lion steaks.

Bart, that's human nature for you, it doesn't matter what the subject is, whether it be Hiroshima (meh), Saville (meh), just because humanity cannot sustain its' collective anger or concern ... How long can anyone? it only needs to be just long enough to effect a change. The next outrage is around the corner.

If you swap "public interest" for "contentment in audio replay" there may be a very close correlation!

There is a small food store here in my Cambridge (MA, not UK), that for years sold "unregulated" lion steaks.  You can Google it up and find some stories. I never had any desire; few would I suppose.

I agree!  There has to be more than 'internet outrage' (which is really media outrage; they merge) to effect a change, as as you say, the next internet/media outrage is around the corner.  If I were to graph the outrage, I'd draw a very high spike, but the total area under the curve (the better measure of outrage) would still not be very great.  During the spikey part of the curve is when we see the calls to shoot the hunter with his own arrows, etc.

Nail, head, bang.

People huh?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...d-by-rival-male.html