Damn, Soulmurk - ya beat me to it. Rats.
Would you have felt the same ethical revulsion if it had been vulture chicks and not lion cubs, then? Referring to a “mommy lioness” {and, by implication her cute ickle babies} is sentimental anthropomorphising: alas, natural selection does not take cuddliness into account - except insofar as it may help one propagate one’s genes.