Cecil’s Legacy…
It’s heartening to realize that occasionally at least public outrage may be triggered by senseless acts of cruelty and violence against animals, and the illegal slaughter of well-known and beloved animal preserve lion Cecil by an American dentist in Africa has triggered spirited protests and heightened public awareness of both the problems of illegal poaching and the practice of trophy hunting.
The office of the Minnesota dentist involved has been the location of impromptu shrines, angry posters, and picketing, with Dr. Palmer himself in hiding, possibly to face extradition to Africa; over 100,000 signatures presently exist on an on-line petition urging such at this point. Palmer’ s guides may face prison terms of up to ten years. Trophy hunting is a nasty practice in which about 600 lions are killed annually, 2/3 of which make their way to America as an ornament for someone’s den or wall, a tribute to human arrogance, ego, and vanity.
Many Americans simply don’t know that such things are going on, but due to the flap over Cecil’ s illegal hunting death even legal “big game” hunting businesses are starting to feel the pinch, some of which offer excursions to kill not only lions but also elephants and rhinos, for sufficient funds. Perhaps public shaming of participants in such ventures may make them less common…
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Tags: animal poaching, Cecil the lion
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FOXSYLVANIA 
August 1, 2015 at 3:46 am
Reblogged this on No Kill America, No Kill World.
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August 3, 2015 at 3:21 am
This is just like that case, about twenty years back, where this egotistical poacher killed two game wardens who had caught him in the act of poaching muskrat pelts. There was a nation-wide manhunt for him. During which time, all the different news networks presented interviews with these blue-collar rural types who basically kept saying the same thing.
“They had it coming, for interfering with his right to live off the land.”
You know where Mr. Live-Off-The-Land was finally arrested? In a convenience store while attempting to buy snack food!
I guess what I’m saying this: if the poaching is done purely for subsistence–that is, all the food is eaten strictly by yourself and/or your family, and all the pelts are used strictly for clothing worn by yourself and/or your family–then I see nothing morally wrong with it.
But, if you sell the pelts to black market furriers, and the meat to cheapskate gourmet restaurants, then you’re nothing but an a*****e criminal. Plain and simple.
Thanks for letting me rant.
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August 3, 2015 at 4:41 pm
Rant away, good Sir! I was musing over other evil dentist types, and remembered the sadistic dentist in “Little Shop of Horrors” (played to perfection in the film by Steve Martin) as well as the old Nazi dentist in “Marathon Man”…truly a memorable dental torture scene there!
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