Posted on 08/02/2015 12:29:43 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Walt Disney’s got a lot to answer for.
I blame Bambi and all the anthropomorphic drivel that followed, like the Lion King.
That unfortunate part of the culture, more than anything else, seems to “inform” the view of nature held by effete urbanites who rarely venture out of doors.
So, let me weigh in on the Cecil the Lion controversy.
It was just another animal — and the outrage generated by its death is unreasoned, sentimental nonsense.
People who claim to “love” animals more than people are emotionally damaged individuals incapable of weathering the difficulty required in a real relationship with something that can talk back.
You think your widdle puddy-tat loves you?
Is that why if you leave the door open your widdle snookums heads for the hills and you spend the next month teary eyed, putting up posters begging your neighbours to assist in its return?
(Helpful household hint for Calgarians who have lost a cat: Save yourself the printing costs. A coyote already ate it.)
The guide who took Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer hunting told the British newspaper The Telegraph that they set up on a farm next to Hwange National Park. There is no evidence that Palmer — an experienced big-game hunter — knew anything was amiss. He paid his guide $50,000. It’s reasonable for Palmer to conclude it was just another legal hunt, conducted by a guide who has been in the business since 1992.
Reuters interviewed a guy selling used clothing on the streets of the capital, Harare. Tryphina Kaseke told the news agency: “Are you saying all this noise is about a dead lion? Lions are killed all the time in this country. What is so special about this one?”
I dunno.
Cause this one made Jimmy Kimmel tear up on TV? (I guess it has been a long time since The Man Show.)
You know what didn’t make Jimmy Kimmel tear up on TV?
The estimated 1,200 Africans who are killed by wild animals, including lions, every year.
Or the fact that 10 times as many babies die at birth in Zimbabwe as do in Canada. Or that only 30% of the population has a job. Or that the average wage for those lucky enough to be working is $253 a month. Or that the country recently suffered hyperinflation, that in one month, was estimated at 231,000,000%
And no, that’s not a typo.
Some sources put the cash injection into Africa by hunters at $200 million a year … not including economic multipliers.
That’s big money for those folks. And it’s a lot of protein on the table when the hunt is done.
Lions attack humans when they get old and their teeth decay and need easy prey. Before they starve to death.
And speaking of elderly lions, how old was Cecil?
He was 13. Average life span of a lion in the wild? Around 12-15. That lion was already on borrowed time.
A trophy animal is, by definition, near the end of its life span.
Finally — and here come some of those pesky and annoying things called “facts” — here are a couple from a renowned conservationist and expert in endangered wildlife management.
Guy works out of Cambridge University and his name is Nigel Leader-Williams.
He’s the farthest thing from a trophy hunter. And yet the University of Washington’s Conservation magazine points out that in The Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, Leader-Williams noted that legalizing the hunting of white rhino in South Africa resulted in a jump from fewer than 100 to more than 11,000.
Why?
Because when the animal was monetized, private landowners reintroduced the animals onto their lands.
Leader-Williams also, according the the university publication, noted that allowing hunting of Zimbabwe’s elephants doubled the amount of habitat under wildlife management. Again, because privately owned lands were made available, thus “reversing the problem of habitat loss and helping to maintain a sustained population increase in Zimbabwe’s already large elephant population.”
Gee. Is there anything capitalism can’t do?
Name the countries that have banned hunting — Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia — and you’ll see an accelerated loss of wildlife and habitat not seen in jurisdictions that allow hunting.
That’s known as an inconvenient truth … but it oughta take precedence over the feelings of pampered North Americans raised on a diet of Disney flicks.
“I do not believe for one iota that this seasoned big game hunter just thought this was another “legal hunt”. “
Why not? IIRC the normal deal is that the guides will put the hunter/customer in a position to bag whichever game animal he’s paying for. The rest is just details, like what goes on behind the curtain in a play.
I agree 100%.
Ditto!
That dumb Timmy would’ve never made it past 8 years old were it not for Lassie, LOL!
Mom took me to see the first Lassie ‘movie’ they made in the theater. Lassie got gored by a wild boar! I SWEAR she was gonna DIE! That ketchup WAS blood! I STILL have nightmares about it.
This is the SAME MOM who would wake me up in the middle of the night to watch scary movies with her!
I’m starting to see the root cause of some of my problems in life, LOL! :)
So, you seem like a reasonable fellow, but you don’t say what the Dentist “knew” he was doing (I gather that you mean that he somehow knew the hunt was in some way in violation of Zimbabwe’s game laws. Something that still hasn’t been established in any objective media reports that I’ve seen. And no, I won’t take Robert Mugabe’s word for it.)
But, to follow your post, you say “You better know what you’re shooting at. He knew.” Well, he certainly knew he was shooting at a male lion. He also knew that he needed to be on private land, have a qualified and licensed guide with him, and have a valid hunting license. He had all of those things.
So what was it that the dentist “knew” that should have stayed his hand? That the lion in question was somehow off limits? How would he know that? That the lion had been “lured” out of a game preserve? (Is that illegal?) That the lion had been baited (was it, did he know, and is that even illegal?)
Here’s what I know: a bunch of people who don’t like big game hunting have decided that Dr. Palmer is this week’s “Worst Person in the World” because he enjoys the past time of big game hunting. He may also have fallen afoul of Zimbabwe’s game regulations, but that seems irrelevant to the internet outrage: they don’t like hunting, and especially don’t like trophy hunting and they have their handy symbol to hang their anti-hunting agenda on.
But that’s a bit of a digression. I really would like to know what it was that Dr. Palmer “knew” that was so bad that it should land his “butt in a sling.”
When's the last time you prosecuted one on the other side of the planet, through the press?
Why not? IIRC the normal deal is that the guides will put the hunter/customer in a position to bag whichever game animal he’s paying for. The rest is just details, like what goes on behind the curtain in a play.
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And baiting is normal and part of the process.
Oh good grief.
I do not believe for one iota that this seasoned big game hunter just thought this was another “legal hunt”.
Who wrote this article? A defense atty? Talk about something not passing the infamous “laugh test”.
*****
Enough of this nonsense. Even if he was an outright poacher, that’s no reason to send him to Zimbabwe for trial before a kangaroo court that would impose the same punishment that would be imposed for killing a human being.
What part of “lions are food” do you not understand. Do you get this emotional about your cow? Your chicken? How about the babies being harvested, butchered, dismembered, and sold?
DINGDINGDING!
“Da bad man shot da puddy tat!”
Sending him to Zimbabwe is a virtual death penalty.
I would hide Palmer in my own house before letting our government impose a death penalty over the killing of a lion.
I think you are missing the point. Animals are food. Babies are humans. There is not law that says you cannot kill animals. Killing humans used to be illegal. In God’s eyes, every murderer will be judged severely, regardless of whether it has become legal.
You know, early on in this kerfuffle, there was a line of reasoning from folks that I would call “regular hunters”, who like to head off in the fall, with a rifle, or bow, or a shotgun in search of some game to bring home, and a little bit of relaxation. We dress what we kill, and fill the freezer, hand carefully wrapped packages to friends and family and just generally share the bounty. The notion of wasting meat is abhorrent.
But there’s another kind of perfectly legitimate hunting, that I couldn’t even dream of affording, in which the hunter seeks the joy of the hunt, and the trophy. I don’t see why that should be controversial, but some of the first sort of hunters look down their noses at the second sort of hunter, partly at least due to the tendency to be annoyed by people who so ostentatiously display their wealth.
That said, in Africa, trophy hunting is the norm: the guides get the meat, the hunter gets the trophy and the habitat, thus made valuable by the much-hated rich guys paying thousands of dollars gets to continue.
Too bad to see one group of hunters square off against another, though. Once PETA fanatics finish off big-game trophy hunting, they’ll come for our deer rifles and bird guns. Count on it.
Thousands of wildebeests are rooting for the dentist.
No it’s not. People need to grow up and realize that Disney isn’t reality.
The author seems to overlook the fact that some of us can relate well (and care about) people AND animals
all God’s critters, yaknow
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