“Lion? What lion?” — Zimbabwe
Is the death of Cecil the Lion more of an issue in the U.S. and Europe than in Zimbabwe?
Though it’s seemingly impossible to discuss the tragic tale of Cecil the lion without invoking a comparison war, there is an entire part of this story that those with their hair ablaze forgot to consider — what do Zimbabwean’s think?
It appears I’m not the only one pondering the African perspective.
As this avalance of Cecil stories reaches its peak, I think there's a real possibility somebody may actually talk to a Zimbabwean
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) July 31, 2015
While Americans are calling for the extradition of the dentist who killed Cecil the lion and the hashtag #lionlivematter was trending on social media, Zimbabwe had one question — what lion?
Reuters reports:
“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.
If ever there was an example of “first world problems,” the outrage over Cecil the lion is it.
“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.
…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.”
Why, indeed.
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The Obama-gestapo (that is the US’s modern malevolent national police state and allies) are pushing this out there like they did with the Mohammed video. And like they jailed the Coptic Christian who made that unknown video (unknown prior to his lynching) they intend to jail this white Christian Dentist
In the arrest and persecution of the poor sod of the Coptic man they were protecting State and Hillary and Obama’s support of the early ISIS, and their own malfeasance and treason in regard the Banghazi incident.
In the coming arrest and current lynch mob inciting in this operation they are protecting the most blessed priesthood of the secular state — Planed Parenthood and the holy rite of abortion.
The poor dentist is unlikely to escape alive. Just speaking odds. I dearly wish him to live and to defeat this greater malevolent pride that assaults him.
As a sovereign citizen — in the words of Poet Edward Henly in his Invictus:
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
That is what personhood in any free nation should mean, and the state of being a sovereign citizen.
Let us all not tarry to the help of this man beset by a mob of hyenas and evil demons in offices of public trust.
Just as with the people in Zimbabwe, people here in the Western United States that have a huge predator population and we are tired of the people in the large cities of both coasts and midwest, telling us how we should treat animals. These are people that have never been outside of their neighborhoods or gated communities in their entire lives. These same people have no conception of farming or even hunting to survive. Also these very same people have grown up thinking that all of the food that is on store shelves is made in the back of the building.
Oh my! Zimbabwe has caught the Obama Plague!
More likely been threatened trade sanctions and paid as well to do what is asked of them. Obama is king, and a evil oneLike a Roman Emperor in the Colosseum, he’ll happy throw a publicly defamed individual to the lions. And invent a demotion as well. In this case, he amps it up.
He has all the power a national government (ours!) wholly corrupted and and morally defanged can give him. All hail King of the hyenas and jackals, protector of the sheep to be fed upon!
In lieu of an edit feature: “he’ll happily throw a publicly defamed individual to the lions. And invent a defamation as well. In this case, he amps up a days-craze over a photo into a bloodthirsty killing mob.” (with additions and edits)
Well the Democrats and establishment Republicans certainly have many years practice throwing the “Christians” to the lions for public entertainment………..
Can we just say it?
The Leftists are Lion!
I guess this clears it up…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbabwe/11775270/Cecil-the-lion-Zimbabwe-requesting-Walter-Palmers-extradition.html
But….but….but Palmer is a Democrat and Obama voter…..
Oppah Muchinguri, the Zimbabwean environment minister, sounds like an exceedingly stupid and dangerous person. She doesn’t like Americans much so that should please the crowds who want Palmer punished.
Not to mention I have trouble believing the government of a country as corrupt as Zimbabwe.
I’ve hunted Africa a couple of times, and I’ve shot an elephant in Zimbabwe. And I realize that makes me Satan-incarnate here in the US, but that elephant and two of his buddies had destroyed a lot of the local subsistence farmers’ crops so they were glad I killed it. In fact, they helped me. As we were tracking it at first light they’d come out of their huts and show us where it went, which saved us some time and walking. They were also glad for the meat, as they got every last bit of it, which partly made up for the loss of crops they were depending to live on.
And no, I didn’t get a trophy. It was a problem animal control hunt. I went there to hunt crop-raiding elephants, so I didn’t pay any trophy fee, and all I brought home was the pictures.
The locals don’t like elephants. Not only do they raid crops, they kill people. Like this poor local villager who was walking up the road at night, and one of the crop raiders was coming down the road the other way. I don’t know if it was the crop raider I shot. The elephant beat the man to death. Elephants do a very thorough job when they beat people to death. This elephant wrapped his trunk around the guy’s ankles and beat him to death against the ground until there was nothing left to bury. From the tracks, we knew the elephant did this without even breaking stride.
I frankly laugh when animal rights types and other assorted know-nothings try to psychoanalyze me as some sort of coward overcompensating for my sexually inadequacy. That says more about their twisted psyches than mine. And I’d like to see them walk into a thicket containing what may be a human-killing elephant.
Most Zimbabwe subsistence farmers live on very marginal farmland. Many of them used to live within the boundaries of national parks, but were forced out for the convenience of rich white foreign tourists. They resent the parks since they can’t hunt the animals anymore for food or harvest the plants because they’re lower on the food chain than the wildlife, as far as every first worlder upset over “Cecil” is concerned. And see the wildlife as a nuisance and a threat. Which it is. To their livestock, to their crops, and to themselves. Which they are.
Unless the wildlife is an economic boon. Which it is, primarily because of hunting. There’s a program in Zimbabwe called CAMPFIRE, or Communal Areas Management Program For Indigenous REsources. Local communities make their own decisions about wildlife management and control. They profit from the wildlife in various ways, and therefore see the animals as an asset to be conserved. And in Zimbabwe about 90% of the CAMPFIRE program’s income if from hunters. Tourists and those on photo safaris don’t spend nearly the money per capita as hunters do. Yes, there are more tourists, but not enough to make up the difference. And since you have to have far more tourists to make it worthwhile, those armies of tourists cause far more damage and disturbance than a hunter, a PH, and a couple of trackers/skinners.
If you want to see African wildlife dwindle down to a fraction of what it is even today, confined to national parks, inbreeding, and destroying its tiny remnant of habitat, ban hunting. Because if the locals get nothing out of having wildlife around but misery, they won’t put up with it just to please the sensibilities of foreigners.
And that’s the goal: conservation, not environmentalism. A reconciliation of people, flora, fauna, and environment.
You’ve no doubt read “Death in the Long Grass” by Peter Capstick.
He spent years in Africa in the 70s helping thin the elephant herds and eliminate man-killers of all types.
I’m gonna have to break out my signed copy and read it again.
Also, the movie “The ghost in the darkness”, which is based on an actual lion attack in the last 1890’s, though I believe it was in Kenya not Zimbabwe. Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer, but it is still a good movie.
“The Ghost and The Darkness.” Those were the names they gave the Tsavo man-eaters. Somehow the skins & heads of the lions ended up at the Field Museum in Chicago, and they reconstructed them and put them on display. I don’t know if they’re still there, or if that’s too “politically incorrect” now, but we saw them there back in the late 90s.
It’s an excellent movie, and reasonably accurate.
The two male lions were both of a mane-less subspecies, which you can see if they are still at the Field.
They appear rather small, but that is an artifact of the mounting process which reduces their skins in size. By accounts, they had a kink for killing humans.
Thank you so much for this. I have been on one Safari (non-predator) hunt, thanks to Alan Quartermaine stories and the like, and as I am sure you will agree that once you see Africa a little part of you will always be there.
The ones I find very entertaining, besides the ones who seem to equate hunting with penis size, are the ones who say things like; “I bet you wouldn’t go out there and hunt alone!”
To which I am want to respond; “So since I don’t go loin cloth and bone in nose alone into the bush with only a spear and will, that it somehow makes me a coward?”
It really pisses them off when you point out that the guys who actually wear loincloths and bones in their noses don’t go out there alone either, lol.
200 low IQ protesters w nothing to do that day decided to protest. Bet they had professionally printed signs to carry and a bullhorn toting boss telling them what to shout.
They just collected their weekly food stamp allotment and beer check, so they were content.
You have to remember that there are actually people out there who think you should get the death penalty if you kill an animal. The crazy is widespread and just getting worse.
The Zimbabwe government recognizes Cecile… I mean, Cecil, for the purposes of foreign public opinion and securing financial aid. The Zimbabwe people recognize one less financial burden and predator of humans, animals, and other lions in their midst.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe hopes white Africans will return to manage their farms and stave off mass starvation in the “breadbasket” of Africa.
Zimbabwe has one of the most corrupt governments on the face of the planet. I mean the Prime Minister won his last election with 100% of the vote, LMAO.
What really prompted most of the radical change in how wildlife management was when the change from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe happened in the 60’s and 70’s. I dated a girl of Rhodesian decent, very sexy accent. I spoke with her about this and her response was; “Yes I am pissed! Now the government has the skin and there is no chance I can have a coat made out of it.” Yea, she is the sensitive type.
The only problem here is that the right amount of money probably didn’t make it into the right hands. Anything can be bought and sold in today’s Zimbabwe, you just have to know where to direct the tjo-tjo.
Those hands would be Robert Mugabe and his cronies. Oh yeah, a kickback to Obozo too.
The lion’s share of culling seems to be of the deer population in the U.S.
Where I live-a western Chicago suburb-I have seen coyotes running across roads in search of food.
One reporter did find a local, who asked why they never cover the villagers who are killed by lions.
And the protestors don’t realize that without the tourist hunting and the income it generates, there would be no preserves, or at least no one patrolling them. ALL the beasts would be at the mercy of poachers.
About a dozen years ago I went on an African safari. The sun was just coming up when the villagers sounded the alarm. A heard of elephants was spotted coming our way. But they crossed the river at a shallow spot and we watched them pass by. A villager stood with us pointing out the members of the herd known to have killed people. I believe it was five. Later we encountered a single huge bull who for unknown reason got pissed off about our presence and started chasing our jeep. It was a slow going bumpy dirt path and he began to gain on us, but after about a half mile we began to pull away. He let out a huge trumpet sound, walked off the path, grabbed a large limb from a tree and broke it off. He lifted it above his head and slammed it into the path.
A few days later we followed a pride of lions for most of the day watching them hunt. There were 35 members. One of the largest around. We saw a couple of kills, but got ourselves between a couple of adults in front of us and the rest behind us. The guides told us to sit still as the rest of the pride walked right next to our vehicles. We were in open jeeps and I could have reached out and touched every one of them. We were assured “It’s OK they don’t often eat people.” I’ve never missed my 41 mag or 45 Long Colt so much.
Until 2000 Zimbabwe had a successful wildlife-management program, with many big-game animals flourishing. But by 2003, a staggering 80% of the animals that had lived on Zimbabwean safari camps (which employed firm quotas to regulate animal population sizes) had died. By 2007, there were only 14 private game farms in the country, compared with 620 prior to the land seizures of 2000, according to a National Geographic report. With the protection of private game reserves nearly nonexistent, once abundant wildlife began dying off, hunted by desperate farmers with no other options for sustenance.
Despite the passing of harsher laws for poachers in 2011 illegal hunting in Zimbabwe is still big business. Poaching syndicates earn hundreds of thousands of dollars exporting ivory and animal skins. Many conservationists believe allowing the community to reap the benefits of wildlife management — by, ironically, running the sorts of safaris on which Palmer shot his lion — will help curb illegal poaching. But it is impossible to have that debate while the world brays for the ruin of a lone Minnesotan dentist, and fails to criticize a regime whose policies were responsible for the almost complete extinction of Zimbabwean wildlife in the first place.
http://time.com/3976344/cecil-lion-zimbabwe-walter-palmer/
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For his 92nd birthday…
Mugabe’s birthday was a zoo of epicurean delight – young elephant, and two buffaloes, two sables and five impalas were also donated to the president by a local landowner. He also threw in a lion and a crocodile to be stuffed as an extra gift for Mugabe. On top of this, 40 cows were offered to the president by two members of his government. A second elephant is going to be shot and given to the Victoria Falls community.
————
And as the Zimbabwean put it, they don’t like lions. Estimates vary on how many villagers are killed in the region, but lions are usually night time hunters.
Quit anthromorphing animals.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/5149977/Top-10-deadliest-animals-on-the-planet.html
African lion – The only cats to live in a group, African lions work together to prey upon other animals and kill around 70 humans per year in Tanzania. In total, lions are responsible for over 250 deaths each year.
Yeah, but how many Hollywood starlets are taken out of their beds?
Or San Francisco queers of either gender?
Or Manhattan hipsters?
You have to focus on what’s important…
I blame Disney for anthropomorphizing The Lion King. We should hang Walt Disney.
I blame the baboon.
Leave Milhouse out of this.
Let’s not forget Bambi. That blasted movie has done more harm…
the answer is yes … and why ? because its a fricking wild animal who kills dozens of their countrymen and women each year …
There is another aspect to this that I have been arguing in other place. I keep hearing that Palmer is guilty because the lion was an “endangered species”. Now, I realize that this lion being one of the lions that lived on that preserve was protected, but I can find no where that the African Lion is on any of the endangered species lists.
It really pisses the psycho’s off when you point out that little fact. My favorite argument that I have heard is that he was endangered because he had a black mane,lol. while that is a rare trait among lions thats not the same as endangered.
I really pissed on of the nuters off when I pointed out that if the large apex predator known as Cecil, had decided to move his pride off of the preserve on his own he would no longer be protected.
What I am getting from this is that this guy trusted the guide and hunter to take care of the paperwork and what not and they didn’t do that. Now I have been hunting for 30 years and I have no clue how to hunt a lion, I have even been on one safari, so for all I know using bait and lure might be how you hunt a lion.
Gremlin, it is certainly not on the US endangered species list Nor will it be listed as endangered in the forseeable future. The USFWS proposed last October protecting the lion as “threatened” per the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The enviros are going all out to lobby for the lions listing. They think if the lion were be protected under the endangered species act that means the US government is declaring the lion endangered, and somehow the lion couldn’t be hunted. Everything would change. Actually, what would change is …
virtually nothing would change.
Starting with the fact the lion wouldn’t be listed as endangered but threatened per the ESA. The enviros are apparently of limited intelligence, which is why they operate entirely on emotion I suppose, but there’s actually a big difference between threatened status and endangered.
http://www.fws.gov/endangered/what-we-do/african_lion.html
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to list the African lion as threatened under the Endangered Species, due to habitat loss, loss of prey and increased human-lion conflicts. In addition to the proposal for federal protection…”
Note that sport hunting is not one of the reasons for the listing. The human-lion conflict they’re referring to, if you read the FAQs (links to a pdf file) is between local farmers and pastoralists, who dislike lions because they dine on their cattle, goats, and pigs. And sometimes themselves and their children.
Now, here’s the important part, which drives the environazis nuts, so pay attention:
“we also proposed a rule to allow for the importation of sport-hunted lion trophies from countries with established conservation programs and well-managed lion populations.”
Again, if you read the FAQs the USFWS tries very carefully to explain to the hysterical animal rights crowd that they can’t ban hunting of anything in a foreign country since it’s outside of US jurisdiction. So an American hunter could still kill a lion in Zimbabwe as long as it was legal in Zimbabwe.
The only question remaining is, could the hunter import the skin and skull. And the answer is yes, and the USFWS goes on to try and explain to the hysterical animal rights crowd why.
Because as long as the country has a stable or growing population of lions (the lion is not threatened everywhere in it’s range), that the country had a comprehensive conservation plan based upon the best science, and among other criteria not only benefited the lion and the wildlife but also the local communities, banning the importation of the trophy would inevitably lead to fewer US hunters going over, a lot less revenue, and ultimately more of the what is causing the African lion to be threatened in the first place.
Habitat loss, loss of prey, and increased human-lion conflicts.
So the USFWS wouldn’t have stopped anybody from shooting “Cecil” even if the lion were listed.
Like I said, the enviros go off their nut when this gets through their thick skulls. It rarely does, they actually think the USFWS can ban lion hunting in Africa!
We’re having an issue in Florida, where after Florida Black Bears spent nearly 40 years on the “endangered” list, they’ve now rebounded to such a great extent that they’re beginning to be a problem in some areas. They were taken off all “endangered” and “threatened” lists a few years ago, and this year our Florida Wildlife Commission actually approved a limited hunting season, to help keep their numbers in check. But the greenies are going nuts, and threatening to get out there and actively try to sabotage any hunts. They can’t use the excuse that this is an “endangered” or “threatened” species anymore, they’re just going off pure emotion and sentimentally.
Emotion and sentimentalism that, like their sense of righteousness, also originates from their sheer ignorance.
I seem to remember that about the alligators too. The “Greenies” cried great big crocodile tears (pun intended) because there were no alligators that they could see from the road (spotted owl anyone). Now the gators are a menace to the people of the state of florida.
Indeed. Although even an arch-greenie is usually only one gobbled-up poodle away from suddenly becoming a proponent of FWC-approved gator population management measures.
They perceive themselves as morally superior.
But this perception stems directly from their ignorance.
The area around Lake Tahoe is having huge problem with black bears, also. So the land of fruits and nuts, along with the state of Nevada, decided to allow the hunting of the bears. As can be imagined, the large urban area Greenies had a sh*t fit and convinced the legislatures or California and Nevada to halt the hunts. Now these same Greenies are upset that they are being overrun with bears again.
Freeze blocks of bacon grease and toss them on their roof.
https://youtu.be/BpBnJq19R60
An excellent lesson on the theme of “cheaply bought moral superiority”, and the anti-rational nature of what I’ve labeled “green goo”.
Remember, the Collective HATES people. They HATE sound science or anything rational.
I want to emphasize that I’m not defending Dr. Palmer. That would be dangerous as I don’t know him, and it could turn out he did violate the law during his hunting trip. Also, I can’t imagine someone who has hunted abroad as many times as he clearly has relying solely on his professional hunter and outfitter to make sure everything was legal.
I normally hunt only in my state of residence. I’ve hunted and fished outside the country and I’ve hunted and fished in other states several times and I always made sure I knew the laws. which was good because on one of those trips abroad a professional hunter asked me to take a shot outside of legal shooting hours. I refused.
In addition to wanting to stay on the right side of the local authorities, I don’t want to violate the Lacey Act. Which makes it a felony to engage in the interstate or international trade in flora and fauna if it’s been harvested illegally.
It doesn’t matter how minor the offense the violation would be in the state or country where you were hunting or fishing, if you violated local regulations and transport the meat, fish, antlers, etc. across international or state borders it’s a felony.
The feds may not prosecute if the hunter really did make an honest mistake and was misled by the PH, forfeits any meat or trophy, and cooperates with the investigation. And some PHs, like the guy I mentioned earlier, will make short cuts when it comes to the law. Some African PHs have been arrested at US hunting expos for bringing in illegally hunted trophies for display at their booths.
But that’s why I can’t imagine not knowing the regulations myself. Even if I could avoid prosecution I can’t imagine spending all that money and then losing everything I brought back.
Which does make me wonder about this dentist.
“But that’s why I can’t imagine not knowing the regulations myself.”
There’s no evidence suggesting he didn’t know the regulations.
How would you identify where the damn lion makes it’s normal residence? Ask it? A lion off the reserve is fair game. The only violation, as I understand it, would be if you knowingly lured the lion off the preserve. It’s not clear this happened.
“I can’t imagine not knowing the regulations myself”
It’s Zimbabwe. I imagine the regulations change on a daily basis, and are dependent on whose palms were greased. What they promise you is legal today, may not be legal tomorrow, especially if they think they can shake a few more dollars out of you.
It really is one of those countries where “rule of law” is a very fluid concept. I’ve been on photo safaris to Africa, but have always steered clear of the various failed and failing states. Go to the Okavango Delta instead. Botswana is one of the few post-colonial African nations to actually be trying to give democracy, free markets and the rule of law a go.
I’ve been to Zimbabwe. I at least knew what paperwork I’d need in the way of permits, licences, tags, etc. It helps to have connections inside the country.
http://www.africanhunteronline.com/
I known some of the guys who write for African Hunter Magazine for years as their display booth is a perennial fixture at the Dallas Safari Club Convention. I’ve had them to my place for dinner, we go out on the town, I’ve stored some of their display booth stuff for them so they don’t have to haul it back and forth between Harare and Dallas, so we’re old friends They don’t work for any Safari outfits, but many of them do run the Zimbabwe Hunters and Guides examination. The standards to qualify as a professional hunter (and guide, I suppose, but I don’t have any experience with them) in Zimbabwe are the highest in Africa. This is one thing Mugabe hasn’t screwed with and for the best of reason (for Mugabe); dollars. To get a professional license in Zimbabwe as either a guide or a hunter requires a years long apprenticeship, a fairly grueling practical exam that’s a little like a mini army Ranger school, and culminates in something like an elephant hunt just to prove they have the skills to deal with dangerous game.
You can not have a better source of independent advice for who to hunt with, what gear to bring, and what you need to know to keep your butt out of trouble than the guys who run the PH exam. Other writers include such knowledgeable folk as a former police investigator assigned to anti-poaching duties, so their advice r.e. staying on the good side of the law is golden as well.
The rules for foreign hunters don’t actually change that much because for all its faults not even the Mugabe regime wants foreign hunters and all that revenue in the form of hard currency to stay away. So as long as you don’t try to get involved in politics and you pay the fees they will leave you alone.
Mugabe’s thugs abuse, beat, and extort their own citizens. They don’t care about their own people’s opinions. But they do care somewhat about what safari hunters think because they want rich foreigners to keep coming back.
By the way the top story at the link is a good breakdown of what happened during the hunt with Cecil the lion and the developing legal case against the PH, the landowner, and Dr. Palmer.
Poster Arminus,
Don’t ever play footsie with a hanging mob, and just like the men in Benghazi were left to be slaughtered, and the movie maker jailed — I have little doubt of a coordinated PR safari to protect Planned Parenthood’s killing of innocent human babies by enflaming a public uproar to froth a mob to want to hang a man for killing a lion in a chaotic and despotic country in a dark continent far away. This distance makes the story more a dry tinder for the untethered imaginations of the social media mob. It may well come to the death of a decent dentist.
Who wants to cheer on such a hanging, or applaud such a mob?