Cecil the Lion's son Xanda killed by American Trophy Hunter

[Cecelia]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/anim...03fb6c8f2d

What do feckless hunters get out of killing a Lion?  A sense of accomplishment?  What accomplishment is there?  It's not exactly as if they fought off a Lion with their bear hands.  They're using weapons to kill an animal that they're not planning on eating.

Imagine if there were a Lion Donald Trump.  (He's already got the mane, and he's got the lyin part down too) He might say "America... they're not sending their best.  They're sending their trophy hunters.  Their careless dentists.  And some, I assume are good people.  We need to build a wall!" (That fence sadly didn't help poor Cecil)

Of course there is no Lion Donald Trump (and honestly it's good that there isn't, because the world can barely handle one of him), and there's nobody that's going to do anything to stop the next impotent person from going over there and killing yet another of these majestic creatures.

"Oh, but hunters donate lot's of money to conservation!" they say.  Sure, some of that money goes toward conservation (though only 2-3% I think).  But by killing a Lion, you also put the other lions in their pride at risk from attack.  Male Lions  do NOT generally want to raise another Lions' cubs.  They want to start their own families.  So it's not just one license, one lion.  It's one license, one dead adult lion -- and potentially many more.

For some reason just seeing these creatures aren't enough for some people.  They have to be able to kill them.  Unfortunately that means future generations may not get to see them.  At least not in anything other than books and movies.  Lions are currently considered a vulnerable species.  And there are many other species that are vulnerable or endangered that are hurt by trophy hunting and especially by poaching.  The only shooting that should be done to these animals are with a camera.

[Minimalist]

Compensation for their tiny dicks.

[chimp3]

Bwana Dick

[Silver]

We should take a lesson from The Most Dangerous Game and start hunting humans who think its fun to hunt and kill animals.

[Mister Agenda]

For me, it's not about what the lion hunters get out of it. It's about what the lions get out of it. Conservancies that protect lions often depend on the revenue from legal hunting to maintain their operations.

As a practical matter, rich people who want to hunt lions legally pay through the nose to be allowed to kill lions targeted for culling by conservancies anyway. Hunters finance conservancies so well that they often suffer from lion overpopulation, which is not sustainable.

The main enemy of lions in Africa is loss of habitat, not hunters. The legal hunting model where hunters pay exorbitant fees to be allowed to hunt is limited by available room for the lions, not over-hunting.

Thank goodness for rich people with small dicks! They're the best friends a protected population of lions has.

[FatAndFaithless]

For me, it's not about what the lion hunters get out of it. It's about what the lions get out of it. Conservancies that protect lions often depend on the revenue from legal hunting to maintain their operations.

As a practical matter, rich people who want to hunt lions legally pay through the nose to be allowed to kill lions targeted for culling by conservancies anyway. Hunters finance conservancies so well that they often suffer from lion overpopulation, which is not sustainable.

The main enemy of lions in Africa is loss of habitat, not hunters. The legal hunting model where hunters pay exorbitant fees to be allowed to hunt is limited by available room for the lions, not over-hunting.

Thank goodness for rich people with small dicks! They're the best friends a protected population of lions has.

This is what I was going to say.  People often conflate 'conservation' with 'making sure every single animal of a species survives.'   You don't need a ton of adult male lions around to keep the species at a healthy state, especially if a male is sick, ultra-aggressive, or infertile.  As rough as it sounds, superfluous lions get shot, easing pressure on prey animals, preventing conflict and infanticide within the pride and paying for the park rangers who protect the lions from poachers.

[Fake Messiah]

And what about people that have the need to wear cloths from endangered animals? Like Jay-Z wearing Nike shoes made of elephant skin.

[Autumnlicious]

I feel there's a perverse economic incentive at play here and that some people here are ignoring it. Perverse economic incentives never turn out well. Financing your park with hunting older specimens, for example, requires you raise more than you may be able to safely care for in hopes of winning a periodic pay out.

Furthermore, big game hunting was a key contributor to several species decline. Using it, even tangentially, invites much of the poor social and political decisions that led to the need to halt said hunting and establish supposed wildlife parks.

[Brian37]

I am certainly no fan of trophy hunting. But some stories are saying this particular lion went outside the protected reserve. As much as I DO think we SHOULD protect endangered species, still kinda hard to ask a family to pick between their kids and a wild animal.

Point being, if I have a kid, and I live in Florida, and a gator is threatening my kid, no polite way to put it, I would shoot the gator.

Now, don't get me wrong, if it is proven this lion was killed for no good reason other than sport, I agree. But my current understanding is this particular individual was outside the reserve when shot.