DC Trawler

Yet Another Reason To Be Glad Cecil The Lion Is Dead: Hunting Helps Fund Wildlife Conservation

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If you’re sad and angry about the death of Cecil the Lion, that’s only because you’re ignorant. Here, educate yourself.

Associated Press:

South Africa is disappointed at Delta Air Lines’ announcement this week that it will no longer accept lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo trophies, the environment ministry said Thursday.

“The decision by Delta Air Lines to enforce a blanket ban fails to distinguish between the trade in and transportation of legally acquired wildlife specimens, and the illegal exploitation and trade in wildlife specimens,” the ministry said in a statement…

Neighboring Namibia also warned that a ban by airlines on trophy transportation will hurt its economy and conservation efforts that rely on revenue from hunters…

South Africa says that if hunters can’t take their animal trophies home, a hunting industry worth nearly $500 million a year will suffer, affecting job creation and community development. In Namibia, more than 80 registered Namibian wildlife conservancies depend largely on funding from trophy hunting, according to the Namibia Press Agency.

If you don’t care that lions are a direct threat to people in Africa — black lives matter, except when they don’t — maybe you care that hunting lions legally helps preserve their habitat. Or maybe not. Maybe you’d rather these countries didn’t maintain wildlife conservancies.

Of course, none of that matters to people who look at a 400-pound apex predator and see a Simba plushie. It doesn’t matter to people who’ve never eaten meat that didn’t come wrapped in cellophane. Those people don’t care about facts or logic. They don’t care about the lives of human beings in Africa. They don’t care about nature. They just watch the “news” about a pretty, pretty lion getting killed and it hurts their poor widdle feewings.

Then, these ignorant morons do stuff like this:

Whoever did this should be thrown in a cage with a lion so they can be friends. Go ahead, dummy, give it a big hug.

(Hat tip: Katie Pavlich)