Cecil's legacy

I do not like trophy hunting because I cannot understand the motivation to kill for 'sport', but I acknowledge that some do and that they are not always 'bad guys'. In fact some good friends are hunters, albeit of feral creatures such as rabbits and foxes. There are also the necessary 'cullings' undertaken by conservation parks. Plus I have no doubt that were my family or friends lives dependant on it I would shuck my displeasure and assume the role out of necessity.

I think that many in today's world have become so removed from 'real-world' activities involving blood and sweat that their worldview has become infantilised. Any/all(?) blood shedding is viewed as something terrible, a perspective I believe to not only be inadequate but spiritually damaging as well.

Yes! We do need to conserve, protect and steward the creation as the cultural mandate instructs us to do, but we are also to be particularly careful of how we can be influenced by the zeitgeist more than we should and what we call unnecessary or vile practices. Reason should trump our 'programmed' repulsion, although having said that I realise how much emotion has superseded reason in our post-modern society.

Interestingly this whole debacle highlights quite clearly the intellectual hypocrisy behind those much vaunted secular values of relativity and non-judgement!

I have attached what I consider a rather informative response (albeit from a utilitarianist w/v) to a blog on the issue of Cecil's demise:

"Here’s the thing though, with a billion dollar industry on the line, ranches are incentivised to protect big game like lions and rhinos and elephants.  Since the popularity of big game hunting has taken off huge tracts of land have been converted from farm land to safaris and lion, rhino, hippo and elephant numbers have increased, not decreased.  You also reduce the likelihood of poachers since ranchers are compelled to protect their investment.

The same simply does not apply to national parks in their current format, poachers run rampant, the funding is pitiful at best and so on.

Also Presidents of the US have a long a rich history of big game hunting, Teddy Roosevelt (the guy who invented the entire idea of national parks) was a very keen hunter and conservationist and long advocated the capitalisation of big game hunting as a means to conserve species like the buffalo.

The unhappy fact is those 9000 wealthy tourists contribute more to conservation in a year than you ever will in your entire life.  As deplorable as it is I’d argue that the suffering of a few animals to ensure the entire species survival is a price I’d happily pay.

The needs of the many outweigh the few in this instance, there is simply no better motivation to conserve resources in today’s society than the promise of a buck or two.  I don’t like big game hunting any more than you do but I can not deny the effectiveness of it either."