Because he wasn't a professional hunter, or a wildlife manager, or a poacher, pleasure hunter is about all that's left.
and now he seems to regret everything:
Leave the story alone except for changing lion to whitetail deer and he would still regret everything. Who wouldn't regret it?
I know people who hunt whitetail deer. My husband’s family survived, when he was a kid, on the deer his dad shot. They ATE them, and nothing was wasted.
That’s not the same as a rich man killing a famed lion in Zimbabwe, just for ‘fun’.
-JT