You're Outraged...Really?

Okay, before I start this one, let me say. I love animals, all animals. Well, not snakes, but that's a different story. However, I will go on record as saying that I would kill a snake if it was in my house or near me, my children or pets. But I digress. I also want to say that I have never understood hunting animals, any animals, for sport. I cry if I hit a bird with my car because he waited to long to fly out of the way. I nearly hit a telephone pole once because I was swerving to miss a dog who ran out in front of me, so I know I could not purposely take a gun or crossbow out into the woods or the plains of Africa to find some beautiful creature and kill it, just for the thrill. I am not slamming hunters. People have hunted since the beginning of time for food. This is not going to be a post about the evils of hunting, big game or otherwise. I want to talk about the reaction to the event that is on every social media sight right now, the killing of Cecil, the Lion. I have tried to read the facts in this story as I realize how distorted things can become over the Internet. It's like some giant game of gossip. You know the game where everyone sits next to each other in a line, and one person whispers something in the ear of the person next to them, and each whispers to the person next to them until the last person says out loud what was whispered to them, and it bares no resemblance to the first message whispered. Well, multiply that game by the billions and add to it anger and frustration, and heaven knows what's true and what isn't. From what I can tell from an article on the New York Times website, an American dentist, Walter Palmer, a self proclaimed big game hunter, shot and killed a lion in Zimbabwe in early July on a safari hunting excursion that he purchased for $50,000. He was relying on his "professional" guides that everything was "legal and properly handled," to hunt the animal. Apparently the animal was lured out of the designated hunting area with a dead animal strapped to a vehicle. The outcry came in a hailstorm of media frenzy when it was discovered that the lion that was killed was Cecil, a beloved lion in the wildlife park who was collared for study. Now, please don't think that I am trivializing the killing of this lion. I think it is very sad. I think that the death of any lion would be sad, but that's the point. Trophy Hunting is something that is legal and goes on all the time in Zimbabwe. Why were we not outraged at the 49 lion trophies that were exported in 2013, or the killing of 60% of the rhino population  between 2003 and 2005 leaving only 750 from the 2000 that once roamed the plains? Many of the animals are killed by poachers, and poaching is illegal, but many others were legally hunted and killed for sport. The reason the "professional guides" were arrested and charged with poaching is that they lured Cecil, and the land owner did not have a lion on his quota to be hunted. Believe me, I'm not a big fan of Palmer's, nor any big game hunter for that matter. Seeing all the pictures of him posing with gorgeous animals he's killed in the past makes my heart ache. Is he telling the truth about believing everything was on the up and up? I don't know. If Cecil had not been a "favorite" of the people, Palmer would have the lion's head mounted on his den wall and no one would have said a thing. I'm not saying what he did was right, but I do think, no pun intended, that he is the sacrificial lamb for all big game hunters and poachers to this point. He has received death threats for goodness sake. That makes sense. You killed a beloved lion, so I'm going to kill you. I understand anger. I understand frustration. I understand sadness. Death threats, I don't understand. Pretty much the man's life is ruined. Do I think he should be punished for his part in this if he indeed had knowledge of the illegality? Yes, I do. We have consequences for our actions. But if he thought he was doing the same thing and paying for an excursion just like he's done several times before for a big game hunt, I don't think he is to blame. I'm sorry, my personal feelings on Big game hunting have nothing to do with what was legal in Zimbabwe on July 1st or what knowing part Palmer played in the whole event. I am sad that a beautiful creature has been killed just so someone can say they did it. Believe me, I am not saying Palmer was justified in any way in my opinion. Ask my parents who thought they were going to have to take me to the hospital at the age of 7 because I couldn't stop crying hysterically at the end of "Born Free,"when Elsa's owners have to release her into the wild. Like I said at the beginning of this post, I LOVE ANIMALS! I write this post to say that I hope the outrage of Cecil's death is not just a flash in the pan and the latest bandwagon to jump on for so many. I hope that his death has sparked people to see what's really going on and that all animals matter. Hopefully Cecil you will not have died in vain.