Popeye_Card wrote:I don't completely get the extreme level of internet angst directed at the dentist. The folks that run the illegal hunting operation, sure. But this is an activity that Ernest Hemingway would have enjoyed the [expletive] out of, minus the $50k price tag. I'm guessing a reasonable percentage of the outraged internetists love them some Hemingway.
The level of angst, internet and otherwise, is based on the fact that the lion was lured out of a protected sanctuary, shot with a bow & arrow, did not die but suffered for 40 hours before being shot with a rifle, skinned and beheaded.
I would be willing to bet that anything Ernest Hemingway killed was wild and not living in a protected area. And I wouldn't have agreed with that either.
Minus the illegality of killing this particular protected animal, you just described normal trophy hunting. It is a sport that many rich white guys enjoy, and have enjoyed for centuries. Including Hemingway, who in addition to loving trophy hunting was a huge fan of bullfighting--one of the most barbaric and cruel sports in the world.
I personally do not enjoy these activities. I can certainly see that other people do not like that they happen. But holy crap, did the internet world not know this was going on until a rich white dentist killed a lion for sport?
I think that's a weak argument. A lot of things used to be acceptable. And Hemingway was a better writer than a person.
It's not the first time this kind of thing has been in the news though. Google Corey Knowlton. This one is a particularly egregious example, and it's an American that did it. Hard for us to control what African poachers do outside of not buying the products, but our own people? I think it's good to publicly expose it and denounce it.
Maybe I am not making my point clear. It isn't about the right or wrong of the activity. It is that for most people, they see a lion and think, "wow, what a terrifyingly beautiful creature. We should conserve them for everyone's wonder." But there is and has always been a subset of people like Hemingway, Roosevelt, and this dentist who follow that up with, "Boy would it be fun to hunt one down and kill it."
My point is that is not new. People clammoring to chime in, "how could someone possibly DO this?!?!?!" clearly have not been paying attention. The angst directed at the dentist to me is crazy. It should be aimed at those who organized this illegal hunt.
Popeye_Card wrote:
The level of angst, internet and. It should be aimed at those who organized this illegal hunt.
I was following you up to this point.
The rich a-hole trophy ... I can't call them hunters ... collectors have everything to do with the existence of these hunts.
Yeah, tough to call it hunting when you're sitting in a tree waiting for someone else to basically push a lion out in front of you to shoot, then you go home while they go find it and kill it.
Popeye_Card wrote:I don't completely get the extreme level of internet angst directed at the dentist. The folks that run the illegal hunting operation, sure. But this is an activity that Ernest Hemingway would have enjoyed the [expletive] out of, minus the $50k price tag. I'm guessing a reasonable percentage of the outraged internetists love them some Hemingway.
The level of angst, internet and otherwise, is based on the fact that the lion was lured out of a protected sanctuary, shot with a bow & arrow, did not die but suffered for 40 hours before being shot with a rifle, skinned and beheaded.
I would be willing to bet that anything Ernest Hemingway killed was wild and not living in a protected area. And I wouldn't have agreed with that either.
I understand the outrage; however, from what you listed above, how much of it was really the dentist's fault? The majority of the blame should be attributed to his guides. They were either nefarious or irresponsible, but either way they put this dentist in a tough position. To my knowledge, there's nothing to indicate that this dentist knew that he was hunting a protected animal from a sanctuary, so I don't think it's fair to frame the argument like that. I know they lured the animal out of the park, but they probably never relayed that fact to the dentist.
Also, for the record, I don't like hunting. I've never been hunting and I have no interest in ever going. I also hate guns. I've never even shot one, and have no interest in ever owning one.
