Posted on 08/04/2015 7:13:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
“American, single-handedly, saves 600 African antelopes and 12 baby elephants — by killing a lion.” As you read the first part of the previous sentence, you most likely are thinking “this is a good guy.” But when you read the last part of the sentence — particularly if you are a cat lover — you may be thinking “this is a bad guy.”
Adult lions on average eat about 15 pounds of meat a day. In the wild, they feed primarily on medium-size animals, such as antelopes and occasional baby elephants. The late Cecil the lion, killed by the American dentist, was reported to be about 13 years old. Cecil probably killed and consumed roughly 70,000 pounds of meat during his life, which likely included many hundreds of antelopes and baby elephants.
When you see a wildlife movie where a lion is chasing an antelope, do you root for the lion or the antelope? Even if you are a cat lover, how many antelopes do you think should die to feed one lion?
In Northern Virginia where I live, whitetail deer are very plentiful — too plentiful, according to the wildlife biologists. So the county police and others kill deer from September to February by shooting them with guns or arrows. The local animal rights people are opposed to such deer “culling,” but seem to have no good answers as to how to control the deer population.
The deer reproduce rapidly because their natural predators have been eliminated — and have only partially been replaced by the automobile. Each year, there are thousands of collisions between deer and automobiles. A few years ago, in a tragic accident, a local school librarian was killed when her car hit a deer.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Maybe we should introduce lions into the US to help with deer overpopulation.
Man, that's a lot of cat crap! d;^)
Was his name 'Sea-cil' or "Ses-il'.
So I can properly tell my grandchildren of the evils of mankind. /s
I don’t think that was it... as soon as I saw this story come out I KNEW the bleeding hearts would be all over it. I laid in a huge supply of popcorn and I haven’t been disappointed.
Was his name ‘Sea-cil’ or “Ses-il’.
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When my daughter was in kindergarten, she came home one day talking about a class mate named See Saw. I thought he was a little young to have a nick name already, so I asked her what See Saw’s real name was. She insisted that was his real name, the teacher called him See Saw, even his mother called him See Saw.
I honestly did not “get it”, then one day, months later, she brought home a paper with all her class mate’s names on it. There it was, clear as day, a kid named Cecil.
PFL
Am I supposed to take the word of a horse wearing prison stripes?
Big kitties often go for toothsome two-legged prey.
Missing villagers are sometimes remembered with: “Something he disagreed with ate him”.
I grew up on acreage with chickens, cows and pigs also. We used to ride the hogs around to make them squeal. You could also sit on the cows and even the big bulls if they were enjoying some grain or alfalfa. We often knew the name of the animal we were eating although my dad typically named them for people they reminded him of... so if his friend Herb was over were told not to call our hamburgers “Herbyburgers”.
One time my sister went over to babysit for some of our friends. She was told that the kids weren't getting along because their pet rabbits were being butchered the next day. My sister said she understood and would be sensitive about it. When the parents left the kids started fighting. They were fighting over how the rabbits feet were going to be divvied up.
It would be a hoot to see that lion poo through the cage onto the rabble below!
Got a real feel for full grown tigers at a zoo. They were in an open range exhibit that had a building you could walk through. One wall of the building was very thick plexiglass. Tigers would stand up and claw at the plexiglass. Not something an unarmed human wants to meet in the wild. A lot of people thought the tiger was behaving cute, but I knew he was trying to break in and grab what he could. Think that was in Des Moine.
You mean to tell me he wasn't a vegetarian?
I went to a small rescue zoo, once. They had a male tiger, in a 70’ x 50’ cage (steel bars, not plexiglass). We wandered down to the side of the cage opposite where he was, with his back facing us. My gf asked me a question, and I answered. When I did, the tiger turned and charged towards me, slamming into the side of the cage. “Not something an unarmed human wants to meet in the wild.” You got that right.
Turns out the tiger had been abused, and reacted violently to deep voices. The proprietor of the zoo usually warns men (it is a very small zoo) not to talk around the tiger. It was safe, in that the cage was heavily reinforced. But when that tiger charged, I didn’t know that.
While I don’t like the hunting of lions (predators are necessary), I suspect there are a lot of very happy and relieved wildebeest.
Actually, Cecil saved the lives of untold hundreds of antelopes, by preying on his fellow lions. Before he was killed he was found alongside his latest kill... another lion.
Cool story. Bet you were talking in a higher octave for awhile after that.
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