Goodall said:
“I was shocked and outraged to hear the story of Cecil, Zimbabwe’s much loved lion. Not only is it incomprehensible to me that anyone would want to kill an endangered animal (fewer than 20,000 wild lions in Africa today) but to lure Cecil from the safety of a national park and then to shoot him with a crossbow...? I have no words to express my repugnance. He was not even killed outright, but suffered for hours before finally being shot with a bullet. And his magnificent head severed from his wounded body. And this behaviour is described as a “sport." Only one good thing comes out of this – thousands of people have read the story and have also been shocked. Their eyes opened to the dark side of human nature. Surely they will now be more prepared to fight for the protection of wild animals and the wild places where they live. Therein lies the hope.”
My father asked me tonight while people hunt. I'm afraid I'm the wrong person to ask. But I like to think that I can at least understand what goes on in people's minds. Yet I have to say that I had a hard time with this one. I can understand where people are coming from hunting animals that are used to being prey: it must take some skill to sneak up and such. But in this case? Or people hunting Elephants for sport? I can't get into the head of that. Just the same, I don't understand how one can find any killing "fun." It seems like a limited form of psychopathy.
ReplyDeleteI understand hunting if you are hungry and in need of food. But in that scenario I would assume the prey would be something edible like deer, antelope, hogs, etc. Killing an endangered species (in the manner Cecil was lured away from his protected environment and killed) is cowardly and deserves a fine ten times the $50,000 spent on the hunt. Jail time and being banned from returning to Africa for any reason should be part of the punishment too. The publicity this has received will probably haunt the dentist for decades and rightfully so.
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