Cecil the Lion.

[The Spirit of Life]

The actions of the dentist were abhorrent, and I truly believe that he knew that what he was doing was illegal, and that he is only sorry that he was caught as opposed to being truly remorseful over his actions. For the record, I agree that a lot of people are outraged over this story simply because lions are thought of as noble, majestic and generally attractive creatures in our collective consciousness. However, there are legitimate reasons to be angered by this story too:

1) Cecil was baited out of a protected wildlife park using a carcass which was tied to the back of the vehicle that the dentist was travelling in, and was subsequently shot once he left the boundaries of said park. The dentist knew that this animal was meant to be protected, but decided to hunt it anyways.

2) Cecil was wearing a tracking collar as a part of a research project being conducted at Oxford University. These collars are not subtle. In fact, they are pretty hard to miss. Seeing the collar alone should have alerted the dentist that hunting this lion would be a big mistake.

3) The dentist and his hunting party attempted to destroy the collar after the hunt, presumably to get rid of any evidence. This is a serious crime in and of itself, even ignoring the other illegal acts which transpired.

4) This dentist, who claims to be remorseful over his actions, reportedly had plans to hunt an elephant immediately after killing Cecil, but turned the opportunity down when the guides couldn't find him a target with what he deemed to be a suitable amount of ivory.

5) Lions aren't like black bears, a species that actually requires sustainable hunting practices in order to keep their population numbers from exploding. In the past 70 years, lion population numbers have dwindled from an estimated 450,000 to just 23,000. When a species is approaching near-endangered status the way lions are, there is no such thing as sustainable hunting practices with regards to them. Every individual loss is detrimental.

This dentist is nothing more than your average garden variety poacher. He should be extradited to Zimbabwe to stand trial and answer for his crimes. That being said, posting the dentist's personal information on social media and making threats of violence against him as some have done is absolutely wrong and not the way to go. This should he handled by the proper authorities, and not via vigilante justice.

[gothprincesskiara]

Did anyone see this
http://www.insidethemagic.net/2015/08/t ... -the-lion/

[HereWeStand]

I completely understand why someone would find caring about one 'cute' lion hypocritical, as there are thousands of farm animals living in abhorrent conditions for a few weeks before being mercilessly killed for consumption with no one batting an eye - Cecil lived a far better life than that. However that does not excuse the dentist's detestable actions at all, two wrongs don't make a right, and while the 'death threats' are very over the top, I won't feel sorry for him at all if anything happens to him. Poaching is disgusting and he deserves to be shunned, his actions were completely out of line.

[DGFone]

The ironic thing about Cecil is that for Zimbabwe, the country where he was shot and is now getting all the attention, many of them don't know what to make of it.

For one, Cecil is just another one of many lions killed illegally every year. For another, legal big game hunters do in fact provide TONS of cash that these places would otherwise not have. If you go there to take pictures of a lion, how much money do you spend there? Not 50Gs.

For two, when they heard that the lion was named Cecil, the reaction was... understandable if you read up on the countries history. To put it bluntly, it will be like having a lion in a German zoo be named Adolf.

[FireAndSun]

I think the dentist knew full well what he was doing was illegal and wrong. He hunted Cecil on property where lion hunting had been banned, which already puts him in deep water. On top of this, though he claimed to have legal documents to hunt a lion no one has yet to produce any as proof. On top of this, he actually has a history of lying in regards to hunting related matters. In 2006 he had a permit to hunt a black bear in one county in Wisconsin, yet he killed one 40 miles away in another county. He wound up lying about it, so it doesn't surprise me that he's likely lying about this too. (Link to back up what I'm saying. There are some unpleasant pictures in the article, though. http://abcnews.go.com/US/photos-black-b ... d=33067963) He should definitely be handled in a court of law. With that said, I also think the public's reaction to this whole thing is way overblown. If Cecil hadn't had a name and been so famous, I guarantee the public wouldn't have cared too much, and this all would have blown over very quickly.