The Straight Dope
Fighting Ignorance Since 1973
(It’s taking longer than we thought)
Indeed!
That’s the part that irks me; this clown basically did something that’s fundamentally equivalent of shooting a tied-up animal. That’s not hunting… that’s just killing something for the sake of killing it, which is wrong.
If he’d gone out into the bush with his bow and stalked an actual wild lion and killed it that way, then I’d have more respect, in that would show some serious hunting skills, as well as some cojones, as lions aren’t exactly kind or gentle creatures. And if lions weren’t listed as “vulnerable” in terms of their conservation status, then I wouldn’t care at all.
But they are, so wanton killing of lions is a bad idea and likely poor conservation, and killing what amounts to defenseless ones is reprehensible, so I don’t feel sorry for the vitriol and abuse that this guy has brought on himself.
I think that my feelings aren’t the norm though; most people are torqued that someone shot a lion at all, and that someone shot the “nice” lion.
No one mentions it, because it isn’t true. They lured the lion out of a preserve in order to shoot it. That isn’t conservation work. They knew what they were doing was wrong. In addition to luring the lion off the preserve, they also tried to destroy the radio collar to cover up their crime. There is nothing legitimate about his actions at all. The money didn’t go to any conservation work but to poachers. He paid poachers to help him kill a lion.
There is just something inherently broken about a human being who sees a beautiful animal and derives joy in killing it for fun. How can that be normal?
I’m outraged in the sense that this is a subject I spend little time on, its low priority, and I’m mostly parroting the reaction of others in order to feel like part of a group in our collective anger.
However, that doesn’t mean that its not important, and it doesn’t mean that its wrong for me to feel this way. The human mind simply doesn’t have enough time to devote to every single cause that matters. When one issue peeks its head out of the sea of recreational outrage and gains traction, for whatever reason, I feel perfectly justified in hopping on the bandwagon
Considering that it’s likely none of the people posting in this thread have donated 10s of thousands of dollars, including them among those who need to “shut the fuck up” is way out of line in this forum. You’re not in the Pit so dial the vitroel back.
No Warning Issued.
Needed both of 'em? Huh.
His only prayer is to convince the worldwide mob that it was actually just an African man in a lion suit.
The only thing I care about this dead lion is the scientific research that is now lost. But I know the scientists will just collar another lion and go on with their research.
And the hunting of big game for trophies, that most people never cared about until the media made this a national story, will continue and in a couple of weeks all the internet tards will forget and move on to be outraged by the next “Thing we must be OUTRAGED about!”.
I do not agree with harassing someone the way this guy has been because it is not only him that suffers but his family and co-workers. But this is the problem with those people who don’t find it enough to complain about a guy online and have to take it to the extremes of harassing him directly. If you want him to pay for his crime then contact and urge the authorities to do what they can to punish him for it but leave him and those around him alone.
I agree. I think he probably asked his guides to get him a lion and he didn’t care how they did it. I also doubt that a hunter who frequently travels to Africa would not be familiar enough with the area to know if bordered a protected park that housed a popular black-maned lion. I think he thought he found a loophole to take the lion and didn’t think he would face any consequences for it.
This bothers me even more, he didn’t just kill one lion, he essentially killed many. Sure another male lion may have come along some day to challenge Cecil and won and then taken out his cubs but we don’t know that for sure, maybe he wouldn’t have had any cubs when that happened. We do know his death has left a gap that other males will try to fill, possibly some of them will be badly injured or killed during that process as well. Sure that is nature but it didn’t come about naturally.
Exactly, I am so sick of the “but what about aborted fetuses!!!?” or “no one cares about black people being killed by cops”. We can care about more than one thing, we can care about animals and still eat hamburgers, we can care about carbon emissions and still drive a car and we can care about human lives and animal lives at the same time. Sometimes it isn’t an either/or thing.
You sound exactly like someone who I responded to on Facebook. That’s total bullshit, you’re saying only rich people who can afford to shell out that kind of money can have an opinion. How about all those researchers and park workers who probably work for peanuts? I’m sure they have done a lot more with their time and energy than a pampered pussy who gets his thrills by killing things. I haven’t “donated” huge sums of money but I have donated to conservation organizations and I have donated my time helping wildlife. And anyone can have an opinion, even you.
Quoted for truth.
Also, to those who have stated “what’s the big deal, lions aren’t even endangered?”. They’re not considered endangered yet but they are listed as vulnerable which is a step below endangered. Also, the listings are not entirely reflective of a population of animals, from IUCN redlist;
So their status doesn’t really matter, if the trend in population reduction continues it won’t be long before they are endangered. If we wait until every species hits that mark it will likely be too late to save most of them.
I’ve never understood the mentality. I grew up in a hunting family and participated in my teens. My brother hunted all his life and always hunted for meat, but he always expressed how he would love to go to Africa and kill pretty much everything he saw. It’s a real disconnect from what he knows is right.
You know who doesn’t care about the dead lion in Zimbabwe? People who live in Zimbabwe:
I’m not even outraged enough to do that.
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Fuck!
I just read that while the outrage continues about the lion, five elephants were slaughtered by poachers in a Kenya preserve on Monday night. The tusks go to the Asian market for “medicines”. :rolleyes:
And now assholes are attacking the hunters’ daughters’ dance business on yelp. People are awesome.
Ha ha ha. This one never gets old no matter how many times it is repeated. Well played. Bravo.
My reaction was something like this: "Boy I bet there’s some antelopes high-fiving each other over this.
It did not go over well with some of my friends. 
I’ve always hated dentists…
Whoa, let’s not get all anti-dentite here.
The hunting lobby tries its best to influence whether an animal gets listed.
No kidding. That piece of hate speech is too harsh even for the Pit. Let’s all calm down people.