[Excelsior]

(07-29-2015 07:37 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  

(07-29-2015 05:32 PM)Troll King Wrote:  

One thing he said gave me a real WTF moment. He said something along the lines of, "You know you live in a morally degenerate society when it is illegal to destroy Bald Eagle eggs but we allow abortions by the hundreds of thousands per year."

But the difference is humans aren't an endangered species. We've gone from 1 billion to 7 billion in just over 100 years and still growing. If there were 7 billion bald eagles you wouldn't hear things like that. There are more chickens on the planet than humans. Nobody cares about destroying their eggs, because chickens aren't under threat of extinction. That's the difference. If there was just a handful of humans on the planet and falling, I'm sure abortion would be banned.

Perhaps my viewpoint is irrational, but I for one cannot really understand the logic behind calculations like this. I consider human life to be inherently more valuable than that of the Eagle, and I give its preservation more concern than I would assign to that of an Eagle regardless of the number of humans on Earth.

The human is a sentient being and a member of my species. The Eagle is a bird. I like the Eagle, but I cannot understand how it is that one can justify privileging the life of the unborn Eagle over that of their unborn fellow man.

The fact that our society has no problem making such a justification just illustrates more clearly to me the lack of value human life really maintains here. Many of the people making these justifications are the same people pushing for all of the progressive ideologies that have gained ground on the basis of compassion for other people and human rights. The fact that their selective outrage simultaneously supports the privileging of animal life over that of their fellow man says a lot.

[Eskhander]

I do agree hunting animals just to have a trophy is uncouth.

But, I also know that lumps me in with people who don't get that hunter are some of the most dedicated conservationists.

[LINUX]

A US soldier gets killed in Afghanistan and it doesn't even make the news anymore.

yet, a lion gets shot and people go ape-shit.

This world has gone and left me far behind.

[Ferdinand]

It's important to remember that the people having melodramatic reaction to this lion's deaths are the ones who didn't care about the recent Planned Parenthood case because it involved medical research. The leftists might calm down if the dentist says he was going to use Cecil's body for medical research.

[FilipSRB]

I like the timing of this whole charade.

[Vicious]

My family hunts. I've put down elks, deer and boars. A safari based chase for a specific animal is about as manly as ordering a glass of rosé wine with your dad's credit card.

No opinion on they fallout though. Pure karma I guess. If this dentist wanted to appear masculine in social media he should pick up a hot piece on the town and get a photo of her hanging around his neck. But if you don't have game I guess forking out $$$ is easier.

[Saweeep]

For whatever reason, us Brits don't really do hunting. It's times like this when the cultural differences between us and our North American cousins are brought into focus, I guess.

I once went lamping (shooting rabbits with rifles from the back of a truck) with a friend here when I was in my early 20s.

Call me a beta faggott or whatever you want, but I still feel ashamed for shooting those rabbits and just leaving them dead in a field; it was just senseless killing of a living creature for no fathomable purpose at all. There was no skill involved, nothing.

I find it hard to comprehend why anyone would want to hunt anything; I just don't get it.

Testing my skill as an apex-predator human being, to me, involves lacing up my gloves and fighting another man.

[Cr33pin]

I lived in a small redneck town. Hunting is like the Olympics for those guys. I don't have a problem with hunting for food. Deer meat is delicious.

The first deer I ever killed was a 6 pointer. I was in my early teens I guess, maybe younger. I was walking down a trail with my grandfather and we saw the deer in the woods above us. I aimed for his head and fired a shoot. (the deer not my grandfather) The deer dropped instantly, I was thinking damn I am a good shot. We walk up to where the deer is laying and first thing we notice is one of his antlers is gone, hes now only a 3 pointer. (I blew one of his antlers off and it rattled his little brain and knocked him out) Then the deer comes to and is clearly distressed and disoriented. I'm like WTF and G Diddy (Thats what I call my granddad) Yells for me to shoot him again! So I take aim for his head again and pull the tirgger and BAM... the fucking deers jaw flies off.. I fucking missed his head and blew his jaw off, now the deer is all kinds of hurt and confused. I'm traumatized and silently telling the deer in my head that I am very sorry but it doesn't seem to ease his pain. I tell G Diddy to do something and hes like it will die soon... finally he puts his boot on the deers neck and shoots it in the head proper, and that was that. The first and last deer I ever killed.

[Hotwheels]

Not one of these strokes protesting for "Cecil" ever heard of that lion before his death hit Twitter.

[Cr33pin]

(07-30-2015 04:54 AM)Hotwheels Wrote:  

Not one of these strokes protesting for "Cecil" ever heard of that lion before his death hit Twitter.

Thats the world we are living in... no one cared about the confederate flag before the media made it a big deal, no one cared about gay marriage till everyone made cool rainbow profile photos. The sheeple just follow the masses..

[lskdfjldsf]

Rookie, gotta aim for the quarter-sized spot just behind the shoulder blades

A well-placed shot will pierce both lungs and the heart simultaneously. They drop instantly.

Do we have a hunting/fishing thread here? Good masculine hobbies that'll save your life if shit hits the fan.

[Hotwheels]

(07-30-2015 04:59 AM)Blick Mang Wrote:  

Rookie, gotta aim for the quarter-sized spot just behind the shoulder blades

A well-places shot will pierce both lungs and the heart simultaneously. They drop instantly.

Do we have a hunting/fishing thread here?

Supposedly his aim isn't that good.

Lion laid there and bled for 40 hours supposedly.

*Don't much believe 40 hours.... If it was only bleeding like that, it would have got up and walked off somewhere else.

[Captainstabbin]

(07-30-2015 05:02 AM)Hotwheels Wrote:  

Lion laid there and bled for 40 hours supposedly.

*Don't much believe 40 hours.... If it was only bleeding like that, it would have got up and walked off somewhere else.

Me either. If it was a canned hunt as everyone suggests, then the lion wouldn't have anywhere to run and they could just shoot it.

Even if it was an open range, cats are sprinters. They can't run away for more than a few minutes - especially if it was bleeding.

[GlobalMan]

Even in their fucking protesting these hipster SJWs can't help but make it about themselves and some performance art piece playing dress up and acting. Get a god damn job.

I give them credit though for swaying me- I wouldnt normally give two shits about this kind of thing, but now I'd rather have the lion alive just so these retards can remain in their safe space, out of public view.

[Mike5055]

The protesting is absurd. As has been mentioned, I'm sure most of these fools never heard of Cecil up until a few days ago and probably don't lift a finger (or write a check) for conservation efforts.

In a sane and just world, Mr. Palmer would face poaching charges in Zimbabwe and rot in a god forsaken prison.

My only hope is that with all the attention, there is finally some action to tackle poaching issues Africa is facing.

[MKDAWUSS]

There's been more outrage over the death of Cecil the Lion than there's been over the death of Kate Steinle.

[TheWastelander]

(07-30-2015 08:13 AM)Mike5055 Wrote:  

The protesting is absurd. As has been mentioned, I'm sure most of these fools never heard of Cecil up until a few days ago and probably don't lift a finger (or write a check) for conservation efforts.

In a sane and just world, Mr. Palmer would face poaching charges in Zimbabwe and rot in a god forsaken prison.

My only hope is that with all the attention, there is finally some action to tackle poaching issues Africa is facing.

In a sane world that country wouldn't even be called Zimbabwe, its people wouldn't be living in abject poverty, and the thieving murderous communist piece of shit Mugabe would've been hanged years ago.

Sanity took the last train out of Dodge a while ago.

[Libertas]

(07-29-2015 04:43 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  

That lion was 13 years old. Lions live to about 35. So it certainly hadn't "had it's day" it was the equivalent of a man in his prime.

13 years old is about the basic life expectancy of a lion in the wild. Captive lions can live into their 20's, but they don't live to 35.

I don't like these canned hunts either and lions are my favorite animals, but this whole thing is dumb. As others have said, where are the celebrities expressing outrage on social media over Planned Parenthood? There's been a few rumblings but nowhere near this. There's no "activists" stalking the home of that callous "doctor" that talks about crushing baby bodies to get organs in the right way over wine and salad.

There is something massively wrong with our social feedback loop. We are increasingly getting disconnected from reality.

[lemko]

(07-30-2015 08:45 AM)Libertas Wrote:  

(07-29-2015 04:43 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  

That lion was 13 years old. Lions live to about 35. So it certainly hadn't "had it's day" it was the equivalent of a man in his prime.

13 years old is about the basic life expectancy of a lion in the wild. Captive lions can live into their 20's, but they don't live to 35.

I don't like these canned hunts either and lions are my favorite animals, but this whole thing is dumb. As others have said, where are the celebrities expressing outrage on social media over Planned Parenthood? There's been a few rumblings but nowhere near this. There's no "activists" stalking the home of that callous "doctor" that talks about crushing baby bodies to get organs in the right way over wine and salad.

There is something massively wrong with our social feedback loop. We are increasingly getting disconnected from reality.

Same thing with domestic cats. Indoor cats can live 15+ years while feral cats are lucky to see 3.

[TheWastelander]

http://news.yahoo.com/lion-zimbabweans-a...22692.html

Quote:

'What lion?' Zimbabweans ask, amid global Cecil circus

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE (Reuters) - As social media exploded with outrage this week at the killing of Cecil the lion, the untimely passing of the celebrated predator at the hands of an American dentist went largely unnoticed in the animal's native Zimbabwe.

"What lion?" acting information minister Prisca Mupfumira asked in response to a request for comment about Cecil, who was at that moment topping global news bulletins and generating reams of abuse for his killer on websites in the United States and Europe.

The government has still given no formal response, and on Thursday the papers that chose to run the latest twist in the Cecil saga tucked it away on inside pages.

One title had to rely on foreign news agency copy because it failed to send a reporter to the court appearance of two locals involved.

In contrast, the previous evening 200 people stood in protest outside the suburban Minneapolis dental practice of 55-year-old Walter Palmer, calling for him to be extradited to Zimbabwe to face charges of taking part in an illegal hunt.

Local police are also investigating death threats against Palmer, whose location is not known. Because many of the threats were online, police are having difficulty determining their origins and credibility.

Palmer, a lifelong big game hunter, has admitted killing Cecil with a bow and arrow on July 1 near Zimbabwe's Hwange national park, but said he had hired professional local guides with the required hunting permits and believed the hunt was legal.

For most people in the southern African nation, where unemployment tops 80 percent and the economy continues to feel the after-effects of billion percent hyperinflation a decade ago, the uproar had all the hallmarks of a 'First World Problem'.

"Are you saying that all this noise is about a dead lion? Lions are killed all the time in this country," said Tryphina Kaseke, a used-clothes hawker on the streets of Harare. "What is so special about this one?"

As with many countries in Africa, in Zimbabwe big wild animals such as lions, elephants or hippos are seen either as a potential meal, or a threat to people and property that needs to be controlled or killed.

The world of Palmer, who paid $50,000 to kill 13-year-old Cecil, is a very different one from that inhabited by millions of rural Africans who are more than occasionally victims of wild animal attacks.

According to CrocBITE, a database, from January 2008 to October 2013, there were more than 460 recorded attacks by Nile crocodiles, most of them fatal. That tally is almost certainly a massive underrepresentation.

"Why are the Americans more concerned than us?" said Joseph Mabuwa, a 33-year-old father-of-two cleaning his car in the center of the capital. "We never hear them speak out when villagers are killed by lions and elephants in Hwange."

The people who have to live with these animals as a constant threat, unsurprisingly, do not give a fuck.

[Aenigmarius]

(07-30-2015 09:39 AM)TheWastelander Wrote:  

http://news.yahoo.com/lion-zimbabweans-a...22692.html

Quote:

'What lion?' Zimbabweans ask, amid global Cecil circus

For most people in the southern African nation, where unemployment tops 80 percent and the economy continues to feel the after-effects of billion percent hyperinflation a decade ago, the uproar had all the hallmarks of a 'First World Problem'.

"Are you saying that all this noise is about a dead lion? Lions are killed all the time in this country," said Tryphina Kaseke, a used-clothes hawker on the streets of Harare. "What is so special about this one?"

The people who have to live with these animals as a constant threat, unsurprisingly, do not give a fuck.

[Saweeep]

I'm not sure most people in Zimbabwe live in constant threat of Lions.

[rudebwoy]

(07-30-2015 08:43 AM)TheWastelander Wrote:  

(07-30-2015 08:13 AM)Mike5055 Wrote:  

The protesting is absurd. As has been mentioned, I'm sure most of these fools never heard of Cecil up until a few days ago and probably don't lift a finger (or write a check) for conservation efforts.

In a sane and just world, Mr. Palmer would face poaching charges in Zimbabwe and rot in a god forsaken prison.

My only hope is that with all the attention, there is finally some action to tackle poaching issues Africa is facing.

In a sane world that country wouldn't even be called Zimbabwe, its people wouldn't be living in abject poverty, and the thieving murderous communist piece of shit Mugabe would've been hanged years ago.

Sanity took the last train out of Dodge a while ago.

Curious as to why you would make this statement?

[Bluethunder]

(07-30-2015 09:49 AM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  

I'm not sure most people in Zimbabwe live in constant threat of Lions.

My friend's dad killed a lion while working in Africa and it only cost 10k back then. It's mounted on his wall and they have a lion skin rug.

I want one too - apparently it was a frightening ordeal and they really could have been killed, skulking around in the tall grass like that.

[Bad Hussar]

(07-29-2015 06:00 PM)monster Wrote:  

(07-29-2015 12:29 PM)Captainstabbin Wrote:  

Here's the Dr. with a rhino he killed...with a bow.

Sorry, killing a rhino with a bow does not give these two doofus-looking guys any alpha cred.

Is that a fucking fanny pack on one of them?

Hunting Rhino is another whole controversial debate in itself. The street value in Vietnam of that horn you see there is more than US$25,000/lb. More than cocaine. Illegal to sell, but the black market and poaching is thriving. Rhino's will be near extinct in the wild in around 10 years unless dramatic action is taken. And by dramatic action I mean direct consequences to dealers and users in Vietnam, up to and including their death (as in death penalty for dealers - I think China has this). Smaller feel good actions will likely have no effect. Otherwise the money involved is so huge every last rhino on earth will be poached. In South Africa Vietnamese consular officials are involved in the trade, including shipping horns in diplomatic bags.

And before people claim that no person in Vietnam should lose their life for the cause of a simple beast, it's not that simple. The trade endangers and sometimes costs the lives of many people in wildlife areas in Southern Africa. The officials who are charged with protecting animals come under fire from poachers and have been killed. Poachers in turn have been killed by officials. The huge $'s involved are massively corrupting.

And ironically the supposed medicinal value, and therefore huge cost, of rhino horn is just complete, utter and unbridled nonsense. Rhino horn has pretty much no active chemical properties (it's dead compacted hair), and certainly not the properties claimed for it in Chinese medicine. Apparently these include "cooling the blood" i.e, reduce fevers and inflammation, but nowadays rich Vietnamese use it as some sort of weird party drug and also as a supposed cure for serious diseases like cancer. But it's all rubbish. Talk about preening and signaling. Those using horn for medicinal purposes are merely signaling that they are super rich. This is the most stupid reason ever to justify the near extinction of a species and the death of many people on both "sides" involved in the trade.