This incident has shone a big spotlight on the terrible practice. This issue has made Americans, gun owners, and hunters look like total jerks. The "bunny hugger" comment really ticks me off. It's insulting and condescending.
I'm pro gun. I'm pro hunting where there is a bona fide need and the hunt is ethical and fair and requires skill. I'm opposed to unfair, unethical, and inhumane hunting or treatment of animals. In other words, I have a conscience. Likewise, I'm opposed to big game hunts of animals struggling for survival.
In my view, it's sad that as humans we cannot save these except for paying to hunt them. That's a sad indictment of "conservationists." Like probably 90% of the world, I have a very low opinion of someone who kills for sport. There is no difference between sport hunting and dog fighting, which is offensive and illegal.
It's also offensive that people enjoy killing, and have no other better way to spend their $10,000 or $20,000 or $50,000 or hundreds of thousands of dollars than to go kill some big beautiful creature on the brink of extinction. I cannot imagine how anyone can justify this demented behavior. Take a room with 100 strangers and average people, I bet none of them condone this action. While they argue "conservation" imagine what better actual conservation could be done with that HUGE sum of money if put to the cause of actually saving these, rather than killing them. So, it's not about conservation. It's about depraved thrills and ego. If I killed a lion, elephant, rhino, etc. I would feel nothing but shame and remorse. I cannot fathom how anyone gets joy from this.
Apparently this guy Palmer has gone into hiding. Brave man indeed. He has a shady past, including news reports of a 2008 Federal conviction for lying about a bear hunt, and a lawsuit settlement of $127,000 for sex harassment or assault. What a rotten person. Now this hunt, where he claims he did it lawfully and ethically. Let's look at the facts. According to multiple news sources, at night he was shining for lions (unethical and illegal), lured one out from the sanctuary (unethical and illegal), shot it with a bow (unethical since it's underpowered), tracked it for 40 hours and then killed it and tried to destroy the evidence and GPS tracker (unethical and illegal). Cecil was a healthy, well known, adult male. One of few remaining - estimates are that due to humans lion population has shrunk from 450,000 to just 20,000 in the last 60 years. And Cecil is just the one we know of. So much for the statements that big game hunters just take the old and weak.
I propose we lean on Africa with out $12 BILLION annual contributions and request they strictly outlaw hunts, and punish severely anyone hunting them or possessing their body parts.
It's illogical to think that killing them is the solution to saving them. I understand and reject the arguments and all of the forthcoming cherry picked statistics about the increase in populations, etc. which by the way were only depleted to begin with by humans and hunting.