EDITORIAL — Killing of Cecil the lion a stupid, cowardly act

EDITORIAL — The killing of Cecil the lion was wrong on so many counts it’s hard to know where to start.

Cecil, of course, is the famous lion wounded with an arrow from the bow of now-infamous American dentist and big-game hunter Walter Palmer, and finished off with a rifle two days later.

The lion was being studied by scientists in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park and was wearing a tracking collar. He was reportedly lured out of the park with a meat bait so that Palmer could get a shot at him, after paying $50,000. Cecil was then beheaded, no doubt to be stuffed and hung on a wall.

A big-game guide and landowner have been charged with poaching, while Palmer hasn’t been seen or heard from but has suspended his dental practice back home. The incident has drawn outrage on the part of conservationists around the world, and justly so.

First of all there are the questionable circumstances in which Cecil came to be where he was when he was wounded. Secondly, trophy hunting is an objectionable form of recreation that robs the gene pool of species of their best, biggest and strongest. Thirdly, bow hunting is notoriously unreliable for big game, capable of leading to exactly the inhumane fate to which Cecil was subjected.

As this so-called “hunt” has been described, it was anything but sportsman-like. Trophy hunting is about the thrill of the kill, about getting your picture taken with weapon and vanquished beast, about trying to get your name in the record books.

To add insult to injury, tourism in Hwange National Park has suddenly plunged since news of Cecil’s death came out a couple of weeks ago — Cecil was a major tourist attraction.

His case has raised the profile of a serious issue, namely the poaching and trafficking of exotic animals, not to mention the ethics of trophy hunting. But that’s scant consolation for the cruel loss of a magnificent and much-loved lion king.