Posted on 07/28/2015 4:29:21 PM PDT by grundle
Cecil the lion, a famous black-maned resident of Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, died at the hands of an American dentist, conservationists claim.
They say Walter Palmer paid $50,000 to hunt and kill Cecil with a bow and arrow. The incident occurred around July 6, with a professional hunting outfit reportedly luring Cecil outside the boundaries of the protected reserve using a dead animal as bait.
“Mr. Palmer shot Cecil with a bow and arrow but this shot didn't kill him,” Johnny Rodrigues, chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, said in a statement. “They tracked him down and found him 40 hours later when they shot him with a gun. Cecil, who was known all over the world would have earned millions of dollars just from sightseeing. Walter Palmer apparently paid $50,000 for the kill."
It wasn’t the first kill for Palmer, who has multiple photos posted on the website Trophy Hunt America showing the Minnesota resident posing with dead lions, rhinos, water buffalo, warthogs, and other animals.
The Telegraph is reporting from two independent sources that Palmer was indeed the hunter listed on the permit documents, and a spokesperson for Palmer told the news outlet that Palmer believes he is the one responsible for the lion’s death.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Well said.
Making false accusations about the story and immediately making personal attacks against posters who question your accusations makes you little more than a troll.
Megan, I’ve seen many posts like yours today. While I understand your point and mean no disrespect, it seems to me a simplistic, or one-track mind, that interprets concern about one issue as a LACK of concern about a completely different one.
Some of us can walk and chew gum at the same time.
I’m sure there are people out there who cringe at the lion killing and don’t bat an eye at abortion issues; but I don’t think many of them post to Free Republic.
Many of us simply found this a wanton and cruel waste of animal Life. The story isn’t about human abortion.
-JT
You realize, of course, that threatening him with serious bodily harm legally entitles him to drop you in your tracks, don’t you?
Why do people who make personal attacks always whine the loudest about “personal attacks”?
I can’t believe how many people are unable to comprehend two separate ideas at the same time. Anybody with basic intelligence can be concerned about abortion and still be concerned about this lion story. This one-track-mind stuff is not helpful to anybody’s cause.
Someone possessing more energy than me should make a list of all the folks who feel that the existence of abortions renders us unable to oppose anything else. It would be interesting to see how often such folks complain about things other than abortion.
They just want everybody else to complain constantly about abortion when they want them to. They probably complain about a lot of other things. Kids on their lawn, barking dogs, commercials, the price of everything, etc.
Prove it.
Well, when I first saw your response, my impulse was to say that it boils down to Education - and it does; but not Public Education, which is subject to every sway in popular opinion.
Though I began attending public school in the late 1950s, when public-school education in the US was still pretty good, I realize that my REAL education took place at home. I was taught morality, Idealism, Golden Rule, a love for READING - by loving parents AT HOME. My family wasn’t particularly church-going ‘religious’, but they made sure that I got a grounding in a church; and that instilled a sense of the spiritual side of life, as well.
This is how kids learn to really THINK - through all of these various influences. And without them - with mothers working outside of the home, mindless television as baby-sitter, and the largely waste-of-time that passes for public education now, the kids just don’t learn to THINK.
And without THINKING, they are susceptible to being hypnotized by every shallow notion that is in the air, as long as it is presented in a ‘snazzy’ way. They are unable to be critical in their assessments of the issues presented to them; they wind up being ‘knee-jerk’ participants in one shallow mind-set or another. And, in some cases, they begin to see the entire world through the one or two issues that they CAN understand and grasp.
It breaks my heart every day, to see how much kids today are missing, all of the beauty they miss, because the ability to perceive and enjoy it is no longer instilled in them through senses of Value and Idealism.
(Sorry for the rant...we were talking about a dead lion...and there I go, again...:-)
-JT
You just did. I refuse to argue with an idiot. If you consider that a “personal attack”, you’re admitting you’re an idiot.
Critical thinking is dead. The herd is everything. It’s easy, and doesn’t require any mental heavy lifting, like being able to have two thoughts at once.
You have done nothing but engage in personal attacks. You appear to be little more than an anti-2nd Amendment, anti-hunting troll.
Good to see the thread is still percolating.
So, since you asked, here’s how I figure that our dentist is the victim in this saga.
First off, he paid the going rate for a legitimate African lion hunt. He went to a licensed, professional guide, who organized a hunt on private land all of which is Standard Operating Procedure for legal big-game hunt in Africa. I haven’t googled the guide’s reputation (assuming that’s still possible given all of the hullabaloo on the internet lately), but deploying Occam’s razor, if a fellow who’s actually earned the money is going to part with 50 large, I think that it’s reasonable to assume that he checked the guide’s rep and, well, he checked out ok.
That, and if you’re going to go do something as stupid as poach a Lion, you’re not going to post that on your Facebook page. So, I say, our Dentist exercised reasonable due diligence, and was operating under the understanding that he was going on a legal hunt. And, just as a reminder, this is Zimbabwe, so the concept of “legal” is always up to interpretation. Jeff Cooper had some succinct words worthy of your inspection regarding Mr. Mugabe’s little “republic”.
But I digress.
Second, I’m suspicious when the left-wing attack machine is so...ready. Remember, this happened in Africa. And somehow within a few days, the social-media attack dogs, the mainstream media attack, er, poodles, and half a dozen “animal rights” PR firms are spooled up and gunning for this guy. Almost as if they were ready and waiting for just the right schmoe to come stumbling into their little stand. So there’s that.
But getting back to your question about someone somehow luring a “specific animal”. Stop and think, just for a moment, about that question. Bait is legal in some places and circumstances, illegal in others, but put that aside for a second. One puts out a side of beef in hopes of attracting a critter that eats meat. That’s all well and good...perhaps you’re not picky, any predator will do...hyena, leopard, maybe a lion or two. But, the only thing in your control is what bait you set out, and where you put it: if there’s a pack of hyenas in the area, there’s nothing on God’s green earth you can do about stopping them coming over for a snack. Not only can you not select the individual animal to lure, you can’t even select the species.
That is simply the nature of the problem: lots of things eat meat in Africa. If they find your bait, they will come eat it. Full stop.
Anyone who’s ever gone fishing would understand this: you put a piece of bait on your hook, drop your line where you hope there’s a fish, but when you reel in your line, you never really know what kind of fish might have hit. Let alone a particular fish. That’s just....crazy.
But anyway, even more to the point, it’s not even clear that setting out bait was illegal. It’s not even established that this particular trophy is “Cecil”. And it is certainly not even remotely established that the Dentist from Wisconsin, even if this hunt was not technically legal according to Robert Mugabe is guilty of anything other than being an unwitting victim for a bunch of animal rights trolls.
Haven’t read the thread yet.
I was almost on his side ( or at least willing to listen) until I learned he has been busted for poaching before.
I have no problem with hunting especially if the meat will be eaten or donated. I can even understand poaching if it is done to provide food - and around this area there are lot of people that do this, but also people that just take a part of the animal and leave the rest to rot.
The saddest thing is his cubs will most likely be killed by the male that takes over the pride.
If they find out for sure he knew the lion had to be lured out, I hope he rots in jail.
It is situations like this that really doesn’t help the image of hunters.
I’m a Life Member of the NRA. Go poach a bunny rabbit, troll.
It is not illegal to lure animals out of the reserve according to Heavy.com. What was illegal was not having a permit to kill a lion that year. From what I read the Dr. was told after the lure (for another type of animal) that it was ok to take the shot. The professional guide was at fault for advising to take the shot on the lion and perhaps later trying to remove the tracker collar.
Not a good showing all around, like I said. This is being turned into another 'confederate killing of a black church'. This will result in all Big Game hunters having their culture reduced and more frowning on hunting in general.
Sorry about that, I am going through a vicious divorce and I had a *bit* too much to drink, putting it mildly. Holy daaamn, waking up the next day and realizing what I wrote the next day is something I never ever want to go through again. Sorry sorry about that. I just found out that that Jim kept my account which blew my mind because I was convinced I was banned for life. I don’t even know who I threatened, all I know is whoever it was he called me a homo which I guess I deserved, and I lost it.
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