About the Lion

[mmollytoots]

Ok so people are going on about the lion. And as terrible as it is.

HOW MANY OF YOU EAT MEAT.

seriously contradiction or what.

ooh negativity spread! is that meat free?

i like you whisk

I guess the thing is not whether the guy was right to kill Cecil, clearly he's a dick, but what is motivating the public reaction. It seems to me that it's easier to put energy into a pointless hate campaign against one man than address the larger structural issues that create the conditions for suffering on a far greater scale. I feel bad for Cecil, but I don't think his death was even in the top thousand worst things that happened in the world that day. Put it this way, if everyone who signed a petition regarding a Zimbabwean lion instead wrote a letter to the Zimbabwean government asking them to free a political prisoner (see amnesty website if you want to do this), or refused to buy technology containing unethically sourced minerals, or took the coach or train to go on holiday rather than the plane among similar steps to reduce their carbon footprint, then a lot more suffering in Africa could be avoided. What's the point in baying for one guys blood? It plays into the hands of corrupt governments and corporations to treat suffering - which happens on a massive scale everyday for avoidable reasons - as if it were the fault of cartoon villains.

Evening folks. Just a reminder that if you suspect someone is not genuine, it's always much quicker to just hit report than troll hunt on a thread. Thank you!

Not only meat free, but gluten free, my friend.

Is there such a thing as healthy negativity?

Brilliant post Theycallmemellowjello! Although it probably wasn't the top 100'000 bad things that happened that day.

Certain types of tuna and salmon are endangered but yet are still wildly harvested...

Cod in danger too, while you're at it.
I think it's possible to buy tuna which is certified to not be from endangered stocks, happy to stand corrected.

Only Jains have the moral high ground with regard to what they manage not to kill in order to eat.

Having thought about it some more I have concluded there is an element of hypocrisy.

People rightly feel hatred and anger towards this hunter but there is a bit of mental gymnastics going on to convince ourselves that our feelings are nothing to do with the actual killing of the animal.

It's just because lions are endangered.
It's just because he killed it not to eat it.
It's just because the lion suffered before it died.
It's just because the lion was a local celebrity.

It's not because an innocent animal was taken from the safe territory where it was living and killed by a man who it hadn't threatened. That can't contribute to our hatred, because that's what happens at an abattoir, and it's perfectly normal.

I don't get how what the bloke did to this lion was so completely wrong, and yet what goes on at an abattoir is so completely right. They're clearly not exactly the same, but they're not completely different either. It's not black and white. Animals don't know whether they're being killed for the pleasure of sport or for the pleasure of being eaten.

I can't comment, don't think I care, about other people's hypocrisy at the news story.

For me, strongly disliking the lion killing doesn't mean 100% approval of the abattoir.

I said elsewhere that I can handle people killing animals for sport, but being part of a leisure activity that endangers many species and whole eco-systems upsets me me a lot. And it's a highly corrupt industry, hence the guides who falsely claimed to have valid permits. My bet is they bribed someone & would have got away with it, if Cecil wasn't so famous.

Captive lion breeding for shooting is distasteful but to be honest, I could find it quite tolerable if it were the best way to keep numbers healthy for some species in the wild.

I see both issues (the lion slaughter and poor slaughterhouse practices in this country) as both being in need of highlighting, and the fact that they are being is positive. Its a sign of an advanced society, one in which we can look beyond selfish human needs allowed to be indulged at all costs, and consider other species.

To put it in context, there also seems on FB at least to have been in recent months a bit of a campaign to popularise/normalise big game hunting by flooding it with pictures of attractive female hunters, so this is probably part retributive to that.

And of course its bloody relevant that there are relatively few animals left in the wild and this one was hunted illegally.

I gave up meat recently, so does that mean my opinion on the lion situation counts for more? Have I got enough brownie points to be able to have an opinion, or do I have to be vegan?

What a stupid thread. I find it pathetic when people say you shouldn't have an opinion on animal welfare if you eat meat or wear leather or whatever else. For me, every little step in the right direction helps. It's better to have a small step/opinion in the right way than be they type that sits there shovelling their foie gras down their neck trying to make themselves feel better by calling those that do something hypocrites.

And yes farming and abattoirs in this country are horrible and need change, but it doesn't make a spoilt rich twat killing wildlife cruelly in Africa right!

I am in the process of giving up meat. I am investigating veggie options, and so far so good.

Cecil was a beautiful and majestic beast. How wrong for that bloodthirsty dickhead to end his life, or indeed the lives of any of his other "conquests" in such a barbaric way.

Sadly, he isn't alone in considering this to be his "sport".

Actually I think the OP has a point. This entire thing has turned into a ridiculous witch-hunt, much in the same vein as all the morons going on about dogs being eaten or halal meat being cruel. If you eat meat, then an animal has died so that you can do so. That is patently obvious. And there are plenty of people in the world who are vegetarian, so eating meat is not necessary for survival, just as what this guy did is not necessary for survival. Is it really so much worse to kill one animal in the wild than to breed animals for the sole purpose of killing them, especially when those animals are kept, yes, even in the West, in pretty awful conditions? Also, African lions are not classified as endangered - officially speaking, they are 'threatened'. Not by hunting so much, but by human activity in their habitats which includes humans killing and eating animals that are the lions' natural prey. Not so clear then, maybe, this arbitrary distinction that killing for food = good.