One of our tour-mates had been on our same tour several years ago and had taken a photo of a magnificent mature lion in Hwange park, our third camp. He showed the photo to our guide, asking if it was Cecil, which was confirmed. Recall that Cecil (named after Cecil Rhodes), was the lion killed by Walter Palmer, a dentist from Minnesota. This guy paid in excess of $50,000 for the privilege of killing Cecil and got international opprobrium (justifiably, in my opinion) for his trouble. Cecil was probably the best-known lion in Hwange park; he was in the prime of his life (lions live 20-25 years in the wild; Cecil was 13) and he even had a GPS collar. Hunting is illegal in the park, but Palmer’s guides had dragged bait around and lured him out of the park where he was fair game. Palmer shot him with a bow, wounding him; they then tracked him and finished him off with a rifle. Some reports state that it took them 40 hours to finally catch up with him and kill him, although Palmer and his guides say it wasn’t that long. Either way, a pretty brutal and agonizing death for a magnificent creature. There was a hue and cry all over the US for some kind of punishment or prosecution of what was believed to be a crime; it was believed that it could not be legal to kill a lion wearing a GPS tracking collar. But in fact no crime was committed; Palmer had paid a fee to hunt (and kill) a lion; it was just Cecil’s bad luck that he left the safety of the park to follow the bait and became a trophy on Walter Palmer’s wall.
Overseas Adventure Travel (our tour company) likes to make sure that each of their trips includes a variety of educational experiences so we can get to know more about the people and places we visit. One evening we had a lecture on the current hunting policy in Zimbabwe. It turns out that the revenue generated by hunting parties contributes significantly to the area; in fact the local economy would take a significant hit if these expeditions were outlawed (at least according to our speaker, one of our guides). Furthermore, the animals are no in particular jeopardy or environmental pressure as a species, and in fact the case could be made that the process actually benefits the species through selective culling.
A couple of asides: one of our guides who now worked for Adventure Safaris, the local company that OAT contracted with for accommodations and local guides, had previously been a hunter’s guide and had led similar hunting expeditions to the one that killed Cecil, although that had been many years ago. While he now guided photographic safaris like ours, Elliot “knew” Cecil and was familiar with most of the prides in the park. It turns out that he was an advocate for hunting expeditions such as this, and so had no particular philosophical problem with them at all. It should be noted that his opinion was a minority one; our trip leader (Champion) disagreed with him and felt that keeping the lion prides healthy and free from hunters made better business sense in the long term.
Anyhow, our speaker said it wasn’t a simple “hunting is bad” question; he said there were lots of lions; they were not in any danger of extinction and the locals benefited as guides, suppliers and support staff of the hunt. He pointed out that many people feel the animal is secondary to the needs of the local populace and economy; and here in the US that is certainly true. We may not be quite as cavalier as organizing hunting parties, but we certainly don’t put the needs of the animal above humans. Besides (as our lecturer pointed out), in fact the lions frequently die violent deaths from other lions, get injured during hunts, and so forth; Cape buffalo are tough and strong herd animals and lions are frequently injured and even killed as they try to take down large game. So why get upset when lions are killed by hunters? They die all the time. Furthermore, when lions get old and can no longer fight off competitors for their pride they are kicked out and have to hunt on their own. As it is very difficult for a lone lion to take down another animal, they generally starve to death. So these hunts may even spare them a more cruel death.
Furthermore, who are we Westerners to be critical? We have a long history of exploiting the local culture in Africa for our own gain and pleasure; it’s only been recently that most of the game drives switched from bullets to cameras, and isn’t it a bit hypocritical of us to suddenly develop a sense of the beauty of nature, to be appreciated and photographed rather than subjugating (and killing) it?
Zimbabwe is an extremely poor country. The economy is in the toilet and most people have real challenges making ends meet; a good salary is around $800 a month. The Zimbabwe currency is virtually worthless; in fact the US dollar is the accepted currency everywhere in the country. The money earned by leading a hunting expedition would likely be more than the average person would earn in a year. Since these expeditions are not only legal, but they provide a significant income to lots of (very poor) local people, coupled with the contention that the overall population of lions is not in any danger, it makes a pretty compelling case that it’s none of our business and our outrage over the killing of Cecil is misplaced.
I understand those arguments, but for me they miss the main point. Whether it is legal or not is not the issue. A better question is “Why is it necessary for some people to feel better about themselves by killing an animal? What does that say about them personally?” And by the way, that question applies equally to Walter Palmer and to anyone else who hunts simply for sport.
