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.
What are you saying? That hunters don’t care about animals? Are you saying that the author’s premise, that big-game hunting in Africa has resulted in significant rebounds in endangered animal populations?
Or are you concerned about the fate of one, particular animal? If that’s the case, which animals should be feel empathy for? Those which PETA has given cutesy names?
But, you did mention God’s critters. Here’s what God had to say about it:
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
The baiting of bear here in the U.S. is a common practice during hunting season as is setting out corn and carrot piles for white tail deer.........Collars on wildlife are no different than tags on fish and water mammals. They're applied for tracking purposes only and does not exempt them from predation........
You don't like safari hunts, fine, I get it. But as pointed out in a number of posts, they're necessary in that part of the world to help preserve the species.
And as a side note, there are hunting outfitters all across this country dealing with every animal and fish from walleye and salmon to quail, to elk to bear and to mountain goats.
As far as Mr. Palmer goes, any attempt to claim wrong doing should be directed towards his outfitter.......
There are laws against killing animals classified as endangered or threatened. However, I would not be more outraged at a person who killed an animal as someone who killed another human.
Those old shows were pretty predictable.
I always wanted to tell Chuck Connors if he quit carrying that broken sword around his life would be a whole lot easier.
And quit telling people your son is James Sonnett.
How do you think wildlife photographers manage to get their pictures/video ?
I blame Disney for sugarcoating Rousseau. Exhibit A: “Colors of the Wind” in “Pocahontas.” The very anthem of the Gaea-worshipping savages of our times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk33dTVHreQ
Hunting, especially for subsistence is fine. Trophy hunting to put something on your wall to boost your ego is pathetic. There must be a better reason to kill one of God’s creatures than to prove your superiority.
dominion does not necessarily include luring an innocent animal out of his haven to shoot him ... for a f***ing trophy, for God’s sake!!!!!!!!
“The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.” Prov. 12:10
Sure. Legal hunting for animals is actually what is preserving endangered species in Africa. John Stossel did a documentary on how raising safari animals as a cash crop for hunting and eating is actually causing farmers raise them for money. If you want to save a species, hunt and eat them!
Wow, you have really gotten lost in emotion. Do you get this emotional about your chicken? They are lured from their pens and mercilessly chopped for Colonel Sanders...
understood and accepted.
its just that the article was very well crafted to appeal to emotion, is all. (chickens are ostensibly turned into “food” at KFC, not f====ing trophies)
and I do think that this business about luring a lion out of his home to shoot him dead for a trophy no less... is fundamentally flawed (and is the behavior of a fundamentally sick mind)
just my opinion. I realize nobody in power is going to do much about this.
” every other episode Lassie got in or out of the building because no one ever shut a window or even installed a screen around there.”
Lassie sounds a lot like Superman.
"Frozens" Prince is homosexual....
Thank you. I am Conservative and rational. This does not preclude me from having emotions as well. There is balance; one does not have to be a Pollyanna to love animals nor treat animals as furniture either. One must respect nature and the animals God placed there. We thank God for the food on our plates not the trophys on our wall.
Disney’s run by the “rainbow” crowd...
“Frozens” Prince is homosexual....
..and this has what to do with the discussion on our relationships to animals? Wrong thread.
It’s become a stock gag any time someone is trying to non-verbally communicate with you (like Lassie), that you guess that Timmy has fallen down the well (again). Roseanne did a version (mine shaft) of it to Sara Gilbert’s character once, which is my favorite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTFjgVIzkU8
It starts at the 6:30 mark on this episode.
But that does not make trophy hunting bad, or even morally suspect. The manner in which the hunt is conducted can be subjected to moral scrutiny: one should not, for example, deliberately or recklessly cause needless pain and suffering.
I can see that you are immune to reason on this point, but I hope you'll forgive me for using your post to point out one of the logical errors that seem so prevalent among the anti-hunting fanatics.
You say "luring an innocent animal out of his haven to shoot him ... for a f***ing trophy"...
The first error is to anthropomorphize the animal by giving him moral agency "innocent animal". Animals can be neither innocent nor guilty -- they can't think, reason, sin or be saved. They are simply beasts, a category distinct from humans which are the only animals who are, in fact, capable of moral agency.
Your second error isn't necessarily logical, but simply betrays a lack of familiarity with the natural world. "lured...out of his haven". Well, the "haven" part betrays the same sort of illogical sentimentality of your first error, but there's no need to belabor that particular point. No, the second error is with the "luring" part.
One does not "lure" a particular game animal any more than one baits a hook with the hopes of catching a particular shark.
Which gets us to a corollary of the "luring" bit which is the area that might well be problematic for the hunting party. I have to admit ignorance of current game management practices in Africa. It may well be that the use of bait is currently illegal in that part of the continent, though with the general collapse of what could properly be called the rule of law in Rhodesia, excuse me, Zimbabwe makes that whole discussion almost academic. What I do know, for sure, is that just because using bait in North America for hunting large predators is illegal, we cannot draw the inference that it is even bad game management in Africa. It's utterly apples and oranges.
If one wants to go down the legal route, one has to address the fact that the "law" in "Zimbabwe" is largely what the murderous dictator Robert Mugabe says it is at any particular moment. And speaking of President Mugabe, it was widely reported that his own birthday party in March of this year feature a rather exotic menu.
"His guests were fed a young elephant, and two buffaloes, two sables and five impalas were also donated to the president by a local landowner. He also threw in a lion and a crocodile to be stuffed as an extra gift for Mugabe. On top of this, 40 cows were offered to the president by two members of his government. A second elephant is going to be shot and given to the Victoria Falls community."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.