Ranting On...Cecil the Lion and Trophy Hunting

All right, like every person on the internet, in your carpool, on your Facebook, and texting you from your parents' house, I am going to talk about Cecil the Lion.  Yes, I feel a weird bit of shame knowing that the guy who killed the beloved creature, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Africa and, yes, an environmentally-threatened species was from my home state, but that is about the only thing that I am going to identify in common with the man, as I find Walter Palmer pretty despicable.  Since the debate has raged over whether or not he should go to prison (Zimbabwean law seems pretty clear in that regard, though it's hard to know if we would extradite him over something that may or may not be considered illegal in the US-I have tried to find this out, but can't...if you can and can share a link, that would be great an I'll update this parentheses), I figured it might be worth investigating conservation hunting in general, since he's almost certain to pull this card the same way that Corey Knowlton and Kendall Jones did.

Conservation hunting is actually condoned by organizations you wouldn't expect.  The US Fish and Wildlife Service and the World Wildlife Fund, for example, both still officially endorse conservation hunting (or, as it is also less attractively-known, trophy hunting).  The idea behind it is that you are saving the species by killing it, shooting an older, less fertile animal who may be able to prevent breeding between younger animals who are able to mate.

This is misguided reasoning on a myriad of levels, illustrated pretty clearly by the death of Cecil the Lion.  For starters, it can go horribly wrong even if you think you have made all of the precautions.  It is very clear that what Walter Palmer did was illegal, whether or not he knowingly did it, by killing an animal that was protected.  Palmer and his guides knew this, obviously, since they attempted to remove the tracking device from Cecil the Lion without success.  These sorts of big-game hunts allow for too many accidents and abuse of the system-were they not remotely allowed, it's very likely that either Cecil would still be alive or Palmer would be facing a more assured prison sentence, which is what pretty much everyone on social media (including yours truly) is calling for right now.

There's also the falsity in the claim that just because the animal is not going to reproduce anymore that it doesn't have value left to the social structure of the community.  The reality is that with Cecil dead, for example, his 24 cubs are almost certain to die soon-the way that a lion pride's pecking order works relies on the new alpha killing off all of the young cubs.  So Walter Palmer didn't just shoot one lion, he shot 25 when he killed the animal.  And this is just assuming that the obvious alpha emerges-in the process of Jericho the Lion (the assumed new alpha) becoming the leader, he may have to fend off and kill other lions in the process.  There are other ramifications of these deaths as well, even in sanctioned killings.  Studies have shown that the revenues from these conservation hunts are not given universally to local communities and to conservation efforts-in Tanzania, it's said that only 3-5% of the eventual profits make it to the community where the hunt took place.  And it's worth noting that we still don't know everything there is to know about animals and their pride or pack elements-we just found out that there are orcas that live to be 100 and still travel in large family groups.  The value of an animal to a pack can be more than just the sum of its reproductive organs.

There's also the fact that these hunts glorify violence toward animals.  The reality is that rhinos, elephants, and lions have been killed for decades as trophies or for their ivory.  It's worth noting that this doesn't stop with trophy hunting.  Like it or not, trophy hunters are not only spending gargantuan amounts of money to go and shoot fish-in-a-barrel, but also to have a stuffed head on their wall and a photo of them mounted over a dead predator for their Facebook account.  This continues to encourage the "glamorization" of killing dead animals, and continues to encourage poaching.  There's no aspect of conservation hunting or hunting for sport that truly promotes environmental qualities.  If these people truly wanted to help animals, they'd just donate the money-they clearly are just in it for the perverted pleasure of killing an animal for no use other than killing.

It should be noted we aren't immune here in the states.  I grew up with hunting, and I should note that I have multiple friends and relatives who still go hunting and fishing, but these are exclusively hunts where they actually plan on eating the animal afterward, and they are certainly are not baited hunts or guaranteed hunts.  Still, trophy-hunting exists in the US.  Wolf-hunting in Minnesota, for example, is something that many (including I) consider barbaric and I find it repellent to hunt for anything unless it's for self-protection or for food (no one is eating wolves or lions), and even that I'm starting to question, as are a number of people.  Vegetarianism is on the rise not only due to public perceptions of animal cruelty, but also due to the environmental impact of eating meat and the health impacts of eating some animals.  It's likely that many Millennials (including myself, and I never thought I'd say that, though my cooking skills aren't quite yet to the point where I can get there) will probably be adapting a more plant-based diet in the decades to come.  In the meantime, though, it's pretty clear that the first thing that needs to go in that environmental battle is trophy/conservation hunting.  It gives very little benefit, it allows for the glorification of killing endangered or threatened species, and it provides no added benefits to humanity.  It's pointless, dangerous, and barbaric.  And should be illegal.