How's your day been?

[Mc Taco]

I clicked on it and could tell right away where it was going. Clicked it off and from all the comments, I'm glad I did. Not a fan of killing just for sport and really don't want to see a lion get shot. Especially by idiots. Maybe some day when I'm already bummed out I'll look at the clip. Not likely though.

 

[Spikepretorius]

Yeah look the intention of the post wasn't to create an anti-hunting vibe. I don't hunt but I don't begrudge the next guy hunting.

I don't know how hunting happens on that side of the Atlantic but over here we have Professional Hunters (PH's) who accompany you on hunts. It is the PH's job to see that the hunting is ethical and it's his job to drop an animal immediately if it is wounded by the first shot. The hunter doesn't get a second shot. It's his job to drop a dangerous animal immediately that a risk occurs. Furthermore it's highly illegal to carry out canned hunting (cornering an animal for a rich wannabe and his entourage to shoot)

The bottom line is that this PH should lose his licence.

 

[7wt]

I watched three seconds of that, just enough to see that they were going to take a lion. Killing predators makes me sick to my stomach.

 

[SEREvince]

I have no problem with the hunting of predators, but clearly that is not hunting.

I personally wouldn't sign up to hunt lions, but if the money generated can hire more rangers or save more habitat and actually increase the population then I don't see why people who desire to do it ethically should be prohibited from doing so. Lion King and Disney aside, lion, buff, koala bear, chicken or whatever I can't say killing one is more right than the other.

I wouldn't sign up to hunt elephant either, but SA is facing culling hundreds of Jumbo due to habitat encroachment and growing herd populations. I would much rather that they being hunted and cleanly killed by a ethical hunter that is paying handsomely to do so and have that money go back in to habitat reclamation and conservation. The alternative is wasted slaughter.

 

[XL Bar]

I would just like to comment on this disheartening video as I am directly involved in the hunting industry as a professional guide and builder of big bore custom hunting rifles (most of which are used to take big game in Africa, Asia and North America).

"Canned hunts" also known as "put and take" are an ethical thorn in the side of the hunting community as a whole. It happens everywhere, even here in the U.S. I think there is no bigger threat to those of us who hunt fair chase than the public perception of a rich elite gunning down a "wild" animal inside small high fenced enclosures. Unfortunately there are hunting organizations which turn a blind eye to this perversion for one reason: money.

Legal, controlled, fair chase hunting of predators (as opposed to put and take or poaching) will only help in sustaining the populations of the species. Like it or not, animals have economic value, especially in developing countries. Ethical hunters, in cooperation with other wildlife enthusiasts, raise the value of the animal to the point that it is in the people's and the government's best interest to protect them in order to keep the money flowing.

Brian