Wednesday, July 29, 2015

CECIL THE LION & THE TRAGIC ALBOIN

CECIL THE LION & THE TRAGIC ALBOIN

 UPDATE:  07/28/2014  1:45pm
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UPDATE: ZIMBABWEAN WILDLIFE PARKS MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY issued an announcement on their continuing investigation into the killing of Cecil, a well recognized Parks Reserve lion. "All parties have been charged..." The Authority has indicated that no hunt quota permits were issued to the landowner on which Cecil had been hunted. Here is the latest announcement,
...
" In this case, both the professional hunter and land owner had no permit or quota to justify the offtake of ...the lion and therefore are liable for the illegal hunt.
Both professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst’s licence number 553 who was involved in the hunt and the owner of Antoinette farm, Mr. Honest Trymore Ndlovu are being jointly charged for illegally hunting the lion. The two are due to appear in court on Wednesday, 29 July 2015. Efforts are being made to interview the other professional hunter, Zane Bronkhorst, licence number 558, who was also involved in the illegal hunt."

This is an unfortunate development as it reflects poorly on the ethical hunting community
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THE MINNESOTA DENTIST who is a "world class big game trophy bow hunter" and who is in the news for killing Zimbabwe's national pet lion named Cecil, is the wrong person to blame for the travesty.
 
The big game Safari hunt that this dentist had paid for, runs nearly $100,000.00 in total expenses, with lion trophy permit fees alone costing $50,000.00+. The dentist was on a guided hunt. Unless he knew that the guides had set him up in a spot in proximity to the National Wildlife Parks Reserve, he cannot be held responsible for the accidental shooting of "Cecil the lion."
 
Cecil was shot by bow on legally permitted hunting grounds. However, from reports and the criminal charges filed against the Guides, it appears that Cecil had been lured from the National Wildlife Reserve onto the legal hunting grounds. In hunting, this is referred to as "fence-sitting." It is a dastardly practice, where a hunter sets up next to another person's boundary or fence and waits for game to come over the fence or shoots the animal on the other property and rushes over to retrieve it. This is an illegal practice, which is subject to loss of hunting licenses and fines.

The dentist stated that he assumed the hunt was legal and that all permits had been taken care of by the Guided Safari Hunt Co.

The dentist is correct.

Critics are now accusing the dentist of hunting other big trophy game, which make up his (also very expensive) collection of mounted trophies.

That criticism is naïve.

Zimbabwe, South Africa and other African countries offer a very limited amount of Big Game Trophy Hunt permits. These permits typically cost more than $30,000.00 and up to $55,000.00 for a lion, depending on the rarity of the animal that the permit allows.
Other expenses drive these Safari hunts to close to $100,000.00 in total expenses.
Critics who clamor and call to "stop killing innocent animals" may end up "shooting themselves in the foot."   Zimbabwe and other countries depend on this revenue to afford maintenance and management of the Wildlife Reserves.

These Big Game fees pay to expand and manage animal populations in the Wildlife Reserves. These hunt fees pay to restore endangered and restricted wildlife populations.

Without the financial ability of big game hunters like the dentist in Minnesota, National Wildlife Reserves would have very little to offer to world tourists and to future generations.
Wildlife populations in the National Parks would diminish and die off a slow death.

By stopping Big Game Safari hunts, anti-big game hunting protestors will find themselves celebrating their victory like the tragic Alboin of the Inquisition, by drinking from the skull of
one of  many starved Park Reserve lions.




 

1 comment:

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