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The Social-Media Mob Bags Another Trophy
I don’t hunt and — at the risk of losing my conservative bona fides — I also don’t own a firearm and have never pulled the trigger on anything more powerful than a pellet gun. Furthermore, I agree that a distinction can be drawn between hunting animal populations that pose a threat when their numbers get too great and hunting rare or exotic animals purely for sport.
But even with no vested interest in the topic, I found myself rushing to the defense of Cecil the Lion’s “murderer,” Dr. Walter Palmer, a Minnesota dentist. Not because I agree with what he did, but because I disagree with what happened to him as a result of the story going viral.
For those of you who missed it, the short version is that Palmer enjoys big-game trophy hunting and paid more than $50,000 for what he believed to be a legal and properly-permitted expedition in Africa. As it turned out, there is significant doubt about whether Palmer and his guides acted legally, having allegedly lured Cecil off of a protected preserve in order to hunt him.
The bone of contention for critics actually isn’t the legality, but the death of a beautiful animal at the hands of an evil hunter. I saw comment after comment on all forms of social media calling for karmic justice to befall Palmer, with many going as far as to encourage others to do whatever they could to shut his business down.
The Yelp! page for his dental practice was flooded by terrible reviews based on his killing of this lion. Multiple articles from the heroes at Gawker Media and a few other lefty sites openly cheered the pitchfork-and-torch routine. Reports now indicate that his business is on hold (and the future of his practice is in doubt) and that Palmer has gone into hiding.
Several of the folks I saw commenting today openly rooted for Palmer’s death, while one person — who is actually a friend of mine — literally said that Palmer should be raped for killing this animal.
Raped.
Naturally, I told my friend that this was not only insane, but also that anyone who thinks someone should lose his business or his life for trophy hunting is more barbaric than trophy hunters are. Although my friend and I remain so, most of the people with whom I tried to engage — civilly and thoughtfully — were content to name-call and block when confronted with even a hint of an idea that didn’t mesh with their own view on the topic.
Again, I think being anti-trophy-hunting is an entirely reasonable position to take. However, the point where I jump off that train is when the anti-hunting folks think that someone who engages in this activity should not be able to make a living anymore, to say nothing of those who think he should be physically harmed.
In our fits of vengeance, we are far too quick to destroy people we’ve never met because they offend our sensibilities. Here, Palmer did something that many people find objectionable, but we’ve certainly seen similar things done to other folks who have done far less. The goal for most isn’t really “justice” in a traditional sense. Rather, despite their high-minded moralizing, they actually seek the brief, primitive euphoria of power coupled with feelings of superiority.
No regard is given to the life that may have been destroyed by these actions. And why should there be, after all? What is the life of this man compared to the life of a beautiful animal? Never mind that few even knew this animal existed before today. And never mind as well that many, many people get far more agitated over the death of a single lion than they do over — I don’t know, let me pull one example at random — the collection and sale of fetal body parts.
Thus, for the millionth time during the era of social media, the edges of what we might call “humanity” look just a bit more frayed tonight, and I am left to stick up for someone with whom I wouldn’t normally side.
Why? Because, even if I might otherwise oppose to trophy hunting, I’m much more strongly opposed to social-media mobs getting to decide who has the right to exist without fear of losing his job… or more.
Published in General
Yep, it’s a gift! ;-)
And now that I’m on a real computer, here’s my cheerleader-huntress post from a year ago.
Indeed, Jay. Moreover, Bambi is not a documentary and lions are not house cats.
Interestingly, I happened to listen to a lengthy podcast yesterday in which Jim Shockey, a well-known big game hunter, discussed the economics of hunting, and how the money paid by hunters for the privilege of hunting megafauna both makes these animals safer by funding wardens, etc., and gives their species survival economic value to the people who live in areas adjacent to the hunting preserves so that poaching is less likely.
I am a shooter, and I have hunted, though generally not for trophies. Frankly, I don’t have $50,000 to throw away for the thrill of shooting a large, dangerous game animal. For those who do, more power to you. You earned it.
The hunting and killing of a large predator, particularly in this case where the dentist used a crossbow, is never a safe bet. There is a good deal of risk involved. I have hunted feral pigs in the Everglades and had enough close calls to know that. Additionally, if lions were in short supply in the area where he hunted, permits would not be sold. They are only sold where sufficient stocks are present to sustain populations.
If anyone is to blame for the shooting of this particular lion it is the professional hunter. It is his responsibility. If he acted illegally or inviolation of rules he will likely lose his license and livelihood.
Random thoughts
We are seeing repeated kristalnachts carried out mostly by fools who think history began with their own births. Agitated by mini hitlers with full knowledge of history after all it is they who taught or failed to teach the little darlings anything useful
These anti social mobs would be crunching roman popcorn and rooting for the lions
Valiuth made me cry laughing sort of like a root canal fllowed by 4 fingers of good bourbon (page 1 i think)
serious query: i wonder if the malignant oversized reaction isnt in part fueled by guilt related to planned parenthood… Sort of a pathetic attempt to prove empathy for a living being… Or it may just be a convenient distraction that feeeeels sort of righteous and humane, much easier to deal with than killing and dismembering babies for profit, and much easier to freeze a single target and symbolically kill it than it is to examine yor own soul and your own complicity in a holocaust hitler could only dream of
+∞
negative infinity
Yeah, I agree about the people on comment media. They get crude and despicable, and it’s on all sides, conservative, liberal, or non-political. It’s here on Ricochet at times. Donald Trump has channeled that zeitgeist and is taking it to political pay dirt. I don’t like the lion being killed but as I understand the situation I don’t think the hunter did anything wrong. He could have been luring any lion from off the preserve.
Though I have never hunted, I grew up in a hunting family. The ethics of hunters regarding the sport, as DocJay has written were as much a part of the values they instilled in our home as going to church on Sunday and saying your prayers at dinner and bedtime.
I also know that hunting, especially for big game, has become a big business and while that business has benefitted local economies, not every client is of the same mold as Doc Jay, my dad or my brother. I would hazard a guess that Dr. Palmer is not. Some men, when they achieve great financial success, direct their disposable income to inexplicable pastimes which really only provide a window to the poverty condition of their souls.
Even understanding that, my personal visceral response to those pictures was profound sadness because of my feeling about large cats. I don’t have to explain that, I just have always been fascinated and inspired by them. I am not likely unique in that reaction, and that emotional response certainly ads fuel to the social media bonfire.
Another thought.
Dad is a storyteller and his most animated tales were hunting stories. One of my favorites is his story of getting “buck fever.” When he was hunting in the mountains, he came upon a magnificent bull elk and couldn’t lift the gun to shoot as he trembled in awe.
How could that lion not produce that response?
Some people are human scum. Some of those human scum are big game hunters.
I love big cats too and cannot imagine killing one unless in defense.
KiminWI, my hometown is appleton
Your dads story is the same as a great scene in the queen starring helen mirren
This story opens a wider issue. I don’t consider myself an imbecile because I don’t like hunting – it is just a personal opinion. This story is about the guy that killed the lion – I don’t think we can associate it with the Christian beheadings or the baby body parts for sale – that’s like comparing stubbing your toe to a train wreck. There are no words for those horrible situations – there are a lot of worse things than the lion story that should be in the MSM headlines, but are not and shame on the press for it.
On the other side, I agree with the premise to seek justice, but not vilify people and seek to ruin them because you don’t like or agree with what they did, like the Christian bakers. The lines are so blurred now between justice and free speech, freedom of religion, the right to fly a flag or bear arms; whatever the issue, people want to eradicate any difference of opinion. That is the beginning of a controlled society, not a free society.
I’ve talked to hunters who are morally repulsed at the idea of killing a whitetail deer doe. Their grandfathers, uncles, and fathers taught them that it was wrong. So now when regulations have changed because there are places where we need to control the whitetail deer population, for our good and the good of the population, they just can’t bring themselves to kill does. People who do that are scum.
I am tempted to tell about my own relation to hunting and to the killing of animals in general, but such talk tends to distract from the main issue, which is the behavior of social-media lynch mobs.
I suppose if we talked about the evils of lynch mobs during Jim Crow days there would be some people who would say, “Yes, but rape is bad. I have no sympathy for what happens to rapists.”
Front seat cat, well said.
But when the stubbed toes and individual freaks get all the attention and drive the news and occupy the chaotic undernourished brains of hordes of social warriors, we who see the other side are compelled to make absurd comparisons in attempt to bring some balance
Ps, love and hello to your cute kitty
Actually considering that this lion was famous for his black mane I would bet he was actually quite young and virile. The black mane is caused by testosterone levels. From what I recall older lions tend to loose any black in their mane as their testosterone levels drop.
Just wait until Disney makes “The Wild Boar King”. Then we’ll all have to wring our hands and form lynch mobs to take down the evil people who hunt the majestic wild boar. Won’t someone think of their litters?
Since we’re applying human characteristics to animals, it has to be said that Cecil was the WORST LION EVER! Consider from this article:
Okay, so right off the bat it’s clear that this lion was a racist. And privileged. But it gets worse:
So he engaged in basically a lion drive-by and MURDERED another lion just for political power. And he and his brother ganged up on the other lion, a poor African just going about his business. They were basically the Koch brothers of the lion world. And notice the lion they killed had an ‘Authentic’ African name, while Cecil and his brother were literally named after the British colonialist Cecil Rhodes and his companion, and we all know that the history of colonialism is responsible for all the problems in Africa.
So shouldn’t the left be giving this dentist a medal? He didn’t kill just any lion: He killed a conservative, sexist, racist lion guilty of white privilege who traveled around with his brother killing other lions who threatened his power.
Also, he was male. Third strike.
Worst. Lion. Ever.
Unless lions have a right to life, I think this is completely beside the point.
I dearly hope so.
Yes. it’s not a Bill of Needs, after all.
And my favorite scene from The Deer Hunter, if I’m not mistaken.
If, by “assault weapons”, you mean the hodgepodge of semi-automatic rifles that liberals think look scary and were called that by mendacious activists and politicians in California in the late eighties (see David Kopel’s oeuvre) to manipulate the ignorant, I emphatically disagree.
Heck, even if you mean “assault rifles” (Kopel again), which are fully automatic, I think I’ll have to disagree, because we should be able to defend ourselves not only against private predators but the Federal ones with big guns.
Some people aren’t deep thinkers and get swept up in the mob and some people have a moral revulsion for what happened but PETA doesn’t really have principles to abandon.
This is an organization that runs mobile euthanization vans, houses “rescued” pets in deplorable conditions and steals pets to kill them.
Here’s a scenario: Tom Selleck discovers the address of a Planned Parenthood person who is videotaped flippantly discussing the collection and sale of baby parts. He then tweets the address. He probably gets charged with something, or at least universally condemned, right?
Now, this: http://www.mediaite.com/online/mia-farrow-tweets-address-of-dentist-who-killed-cecil-the-lion/
“Why are you shooting a lion in the first place? I’m honestly curious to know why a human being would feel compelled to do that. How is that fun?”
https://youtu.be/_LzXpE1mjqA
Makes a fellow want to waste one just to feel what it’s like.
Or waste a talk show host to feel the most dangerous game.
If it’s true that he paid $50,000 to go to another country and violate that country’s wildlife conservation laws, that means he is not a hunter. He’s a poacher.
Now, whether or not you agree with a particular country’s wildlife conservation laws is a perfectly valid debate to have, but largely immaterial to this particular case. This dentist could have spent his $50,000 to lobby the country to change its laws instead of spending it to go poaching protected animals.
Killing an animal from a nature preserve is little different from taking a rifle to a zoo. It doesn’t count as hunting.
At 13 years of age, Cecil was one of Zimbabwe’s oldest lions.
http://www.businessinsider.com/cecil-lion-brutally-murdered-zimbabwe-2015-7#ooid=QwMG1rdjrXuCZitowj7DV2KEZh0NcBWV
Any hunter who knowingly did what this dude is accused of would be shunned by the people whose company he desperately wanted to be in. Hunters have no patience for poaching or poachers. They’re a disgrace.