An American Dentist Killed Zimbabwe’s Famous Lion

[Benito]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
This is a slippery slope, animals are butchered every day for our tables, raised under abhorrent conditions for the purpose of being killed and consumed.


Exactly, we find the lion's death abhorrent because it's a magnificent animal and money was involved, but will go back to grilling our burgers with meat from 100-400 cows, some of which must have suffered.

(Btw I know that many here only consume meat from humanely raised animals).

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
Shoot the dentist for killing that lion. Tuff guy to shoot that animal.


That'd be too good for him. I say dump him off with no survival supplies in the middle of a cannibal populated jungle where there'd be no chance of survival or escape,with no shoes or clothing.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
We humanize our pets, we make them part of our family, but as far as wild fare goes, this lion is no different from a bear, deer or moose, animals that are hunted (usually for food) every year. So while this was indeed wasteful and disgusting, it is not in-line with killing somebody's pet, let alone killing another human being.

Deer, moose, buffalo ... were/are hunted for food in many places. They are abundant and killing some don't effect their population.

Lion, especially male, are very rare and are endangered species. A male lion is so magnificent, they are the trophy of African jungle and should be preserved for all to view, not to be hunted. In this case the lion was lured to outside the protected reserve to be murdered.

It is so sad to see a magnificent male lion murdered, so that the murderer can display his head as a trophy in his home.

I condemn all killings of endangered species especially Lion, Tiger, Elephant, Rhino ...

 

[Benito]

And now the 6 Lion cubs will be killed by the dominant male in the pride in order to persuade the females to mate with him.

 

[surfstar]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL

The laws regarding killing an animal, even under disgusting circumstances like those depicted in the OP, are not however the same as for killing a human being.


You don't go to jail for running over a raccoon or smoking a deer with your car. The repercussions for hitting a human are markedly different.


Well, actually in regards to this part of your post - Freakonomics did a podcast about how to get away with murder... run someone over. Very rarely would someone ever get prosecuted.


Call me an anti-dentite, but f&^# that guy.
And I do see the irony, as I eat meat, but do not advocate killing of animals. Especially for "sport".

I always have a hard time justifying where we draw the line. Mosquitos? Kill 'em all. Mammals? Rodents on up to whales? We get offended based on a sliding scale of how "human" we think the animals are. We're all just animals. Some need to eat other ones to survive. We've seen the Orcas seemingly "play" with seals. Or our housecats killings birds or mice. Which ones cause offense?

Very hard to present hard and fast rules, but when the majority of society takes offense, maybe we should take notice.

 

[raytseng]

The guy is basically already getting doxed and his business, associates and whole life will suffer the repercussions.

However, my first feeling is he's pretty much the whipping boy whose story went viral. Obviously he's not the only guy who's killed a lion, nor the only american. Nor was he a solo party that coordinated the whole activity.

I feel sad that the wrath of people behind their keyboards is limited to getting distracted by shiny things. So they who will make themselves feel like they are activists for 30 seconds by commenting or hitting a like button; but then forget about it by tomorrow and move on to the next thing. The Slactivism is more to make them feel better about themselves then actually making any true commitment or sacrifice to solve any problem.

He deserves it, but trashing just one guy doesn't stop the problem, nor punish any of the others who happened to not go viral.

 

[Benito]

There's also the blood thirsty, hedonistic nature of this. Pay $50,000, lure the animal (illegally it seems), make it suffer, chop it's head off to display as some sort of prize.

I wonder what his patients are going to think.

 

[totegoat]

What was sporting about killing the lion? What a DA.

 

[Eddie]

I think 30 years of hard labor in their country would be appropriate after a fine, that would make him poor. Ed

 

[GiveMeAVowel]

There is more coming out about the subject, some years ago he shot and killed a black bear (in an illegal area) and took the dead body 40 miles to a place where the kill was legal. He was convicted.

 

[Panzerman]

I was a hunter and sportsman. I see no sportsmanship in paying $50,000 to pretty much have a lion brought to you. The point that he shot a lion with a bow and arrow even makes it more of a case that this was no killer cat. This is no sportsman, this is no hunter. This is a loser with a ego problem and a lot of money. No matter how much money he spends he isn't going to impress anyone but other losers and the people he is paying.

 

[Mr Nice]

How was this idiot hunter not arrested and allowed to leave the country???

 

[Benito]

Originally Posted By: rshaw125
Unnecessary. Especially considering how over populated most African countries are.


What does this mean?

 

[Inspecktor]

I am glad I wasn't one of his patients, not knowing they are supporting his ego boosting [censored].

 

[oliveoil]

The US should extradite him and he should be prosecuted under the laws of the country where he commuted the crime of poaching.

 

[LoneRanger]

If he wanted sport he should have gone 1:1 with Cecil the Lion while armed only with a spear or large blade. That would be sport. I fail to see how so called big game hunters consider an arranged and guided hunt with workers herding the animal towards them or etc, and then popping it with a rifle with high end optics to be any kind of sporting experience whatsoever.

I came up in a hunting family. Not big game. Ducks, Geese, Squirell, doves and once we went pheasant hunting. My dad's friend had a German Short Hair hunting dog that would point the pheasants. I enjoyed it, it all felt sporting because we had to work to flush the game or wait for it to come to decoys etc. But we also ate what we bagged. Dad would do most of the cleaning of it and mom would fix it up. I was always paranoid about biting down on a lead shot pellet when we'd have one of the birds or foul.

I don't even have anything against trophy hunting of non-endangered non-predators. However I don't like trophy hunting of predators. If a predator is causing a ranching or otherwise agriculture/livestock problem then do what has to be done, but just going and popping a magnificent predator in a canned hunt "safari" is [censored]. In my opinion.

 

[BobsArmory]

Amen Brother!

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
I have three cats and a dog. I love my animals. That said, I have no problem killing pest animals like a squirrel or raccoon that is being destructive.

The laws regarding killing an animal, even under disgusting circumstances like those depicted in the OP, are not however the same as for killing a human being. This is a slippery slope, animals are butchered every day for our tables, raised under abhorrent conditions for the purpose of being killed and consumed.

So while I certainly agree that this form of "sport" has no place in a civilized society, I do not agree with those that feel that he should be beheaded for killing the lion.

You don't go to jail for running over a raccoon or smoking a deer with your car. The repercussions for hitting a human are markedly different. So in the case of beheading this lion, the repercussion also, are (suitably) different. We humanize our pets, we make them part of our family, but as far as wild fare goes, this lion is no different from a bear, deer or moose, animals that are hunted (usually for food) every year. So while this was indeed wasteful and disgusting, it is not in-line with killing somebody's pet, let alone killing another human being.

 

[BobsArmory]

Wow. I am amazed at how many of you are so full of hate.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Borrowed time for sure.

 

[heynow]

Funny, I was just reading a book last night by Robert Sapolsky about his experiences living in Africa. He mentions that as lions get on in age, they eventually lose all their teeth and often take to hunting local villagers (easy prey) as they slowly starve to death. 13 years is very old for a lion. Some would say he did this animal a favor by preventing a drawn out and painful demise.