If the death of Cecil, the Zimbabwean lion, can serve any purpose, it will bring attention to the inhumanity and senselessness of killing animals for amusement. Perhaps the furor created by the killing of the lion will spark changes to trophy hunting in B.C. and elsewhere.
Walter Palmer is not the first person to kill a lion for sport, to use the word loosely — nothing resembling sportsmanship was involved — but the U.S. dentist got himself caught in a perfect storm after he killed the lion near Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park on July 1. The majestic lion was the subject of study by Oxford University researchers and was a major attraction for visitors to Hwange. The lion had a name, unlike the thousands of anonymous trophy animals around the world who are killed each year. The photo posted of Palmer posing with the lion’s severed head was the spark that ignited a firestorm of Internet shaming and vilification.
Saying there were threats against him, Palmer has closed his practice and gone into hiding. He insists that he was hunting legally and that he had the proper permits. But Zimbabwean authorities are filing charges against him and want him extradited. The two men he hired, including the park owner, face charges in connection with the lion’s killing.
Big-game hunters usually depend on licensed guides to ensure regulations are followed. If laws were broken, the guilty parties should pay the appropriate penalties, but Palmer’s public punishment is far out of proportion to what he did.
It is not Palmer who should be on trial, but trophy hunting. It’s called sport, but the common understanding of sport is that it involves competition or the proving of one’s prowess in a certain skill. It comes with a sense of self-betterment, of improving abilities.
Sport implies a level playing field. That’s why golfers have handicaps, why weights are added to jockeys’ saddles. Leagues are drawn up to ensure athletes compete with others of similar ability.
Yes, a grizzly bear vastly outweighs a human and can kill a person with a swipe of its massive paw, but the human can kill the grizzly from a safe distance. There’s not much in the way of a contest.
Competition also implies the consent of the competitors. Animals do not choose to be part of an activity in which the goal is to end the animal’s life.
Sometimes animals are killed when they threaten humans. Sometimes herds need to be thinned. Hunting can be justified when it provides food — all of the Earth’s living organisms are somewhere on the food chain. But killing animals for bragging rights, to satisfy egos or just for a thrill is a shallow and selfish deed.
If compassionate reasons aren’t enough, trophy hunting doesn’t make economic sense.
Palmer is alleged to have paid about $50,000 to kill Cecil, but Bryan Orford, a professional guide who has worked in Hwange, says that tourists from one nearby lodge who come to photograph Cecil would have generated more in five days than Palmer paid in one-time fees. And Cecil would have been around to generate more revenue — and more lion cubs.
Closer to home, hunting brings about $116 million worth of economic activity to B.C. each year, but according to the Wilderness Tourism Association of B.C., ecotourism here is worth about $1.5 billion a year. It’s a growing and sustainable industry.
It takes skill to track bears and other animals, and there’s a thrill in getting close. If you really want to prove your abilities and courage, take photos. Your selfie with a grizzly will be far more impressive than having its hide on the floor of your den.
