A vile crime to kill this beautiful beast
THERE can be very few not disgusted by the story of the Yankee dentist who travelled all the way from Minnesota with a case full of dollars to shoot a Zimbabwean lion and was guided to the slaughter of the magnificent Cecil.
But what really angered me was that instead of choosing a clean head or heart shot – instantaneous death – he elected to drive a steel crossbow bolt into the lion’s fl esh. For 40 hours, in hideous pain, the lion limped from cover to cover, bleeding out, until finally cornered and finished off. That is not even hunting – it is sadism.
That said, our human attitude to wild creatures and their death, sometimes necessary, sometimes justifi able, is shrouded in hypocrisy. The rat is also a wild animal; a vertebrate, warm- blooded, sentient, capable of pain. But such is the time- long loathing of humans for rats that there is never a protest if they are killed in enormous numbers.
Man has always feared and hated the snake, though 95 per cent are harmless and even the poisonous ones will normally slither away unless challenged. For them we are not food nor they for us. But we kill them and there is no protest. There must be two score life forms whose death never disturbs our consciences even though we do not eat them.
Personally I think there are three categories of animal- killing that are morally justifi able. We humans have to cohabit with the planet’s fauna but we do not, as the apex predator, have to be subservient.
That said, I do insist on death being instantaneous, with every effort made to avoid pain. That is why the American dentist disgusts me so much. He chose to infl ict hours of agony.
In the fi rst category I would put the old, frail, sick, diseased and spreading disease. This is called a cull which is never a wipeout across the board but selective and necessary, especially when the target is itself a danger to the whole eco- system whose animal inhabitants also have a right to live. In the same group must come genuine vermin such as the rat.
In the second group are those whose sheer numbers threaten to move into infestation mode, multiplying and breeding so fast that they threaten other life forms by consuming the life- support system that has to be protected and shared. Some of these are edible as well, I have no quarrel with pigeon pie or rabbit casserole. Number-control and disease- control cannot be separated from Man’s custodial role over this planet which is ours whether we like it or not.
Lastly there is the taking of life of a genuine food source, whether raised on farms or ranches, for no other purpose than to be eaten. Vegetarians and vegans apart, Man has eaten meat since he first stood on two legs and is not going to stop now. And he may protect himself against the man- eating crocodile and his herds against wolves.
But trophy- hunting? By its very nature a trophy will have to be a magnifi cent example or there is no trophy. If some vain ass wants to pay a fortune to kill a sick and diseased old beast, more fool he. The game warden would have to do it anyway.
However wiping out a virile pride-leader such as Cecil was a crime and the two guides who let it happen should also go to jail.