I can understand the emotional responses that you have, especially when engaged in a flame war, and all of God's creatures are majestic in their own way, but, much like the conservative message of compassion via logic and rational thinking, if you stepped back for a sec and got past the cute factor, you could see the service that is being provided in conservational hunting.
Tie in the fact that I see a lot of wealth envy on an otherwise conservative forum, it's easy to hate on these guys because they can afford to do what many dream of.
I went to Africa but with absolutely no dreams of killing what I saw. My shooting was with a camera. So be careful where you apply class envy.
And no - I did not say it was ok as long as they’re stupid and ugly. I personally couldn’t do it to any of them but the leopard and elephant stand out to me.
As for the elephants - do you think more killing would solve this problem:
It is estimated that there were once more than 350 species of elephants in the world. Today we only have two of them left – the Asian and the Africa species. Both of them are at risk of extinction if more intense efforts to protect them aren’t in place. Between illegal hunting of them for ivory as well as the destruction of their natural habitat things are simply closing in on them at an alarming rate.