If someone shoots a Lion in the Rungwa, next to Ruaha National park, you hardly hear anyone bat an eyebrow. Shoot a well known Lion named Cecil next to Hwange, and all hell breaks loose on the internet.
I just feel that a certain amount of discretion should be observed. Fly under the radar, so to speak.
Brent I really don't think we are that far apart, but there are important details that make our positions different (even though we are absolutely on the same side of the overall fight).
See Wheels comments below. The lion named Cecil was NOT well known. Had you ever heard of him before he was shot? I hadn't. Being shot made him well known, along with a perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances, questionable decisions, and outright lies by antis.
Heck, I had a guy telling me that Cecil had been teaching all of the other lions to tolerate people and to not attack them. Dude was serious... Point is, you can't believe everything you read on the internet, like Cecil being well known and loved by millions.
When the Cecil story broke, I heard the following story come out of Zimbabwe. People in the parks department and over parks in Harare were calling the parks department in Hwange to ask why Hwange hadn't told them about this famous lion called Cecil before he was shot. The head of Parks at Hwange had no clue what they were talking about and asked his people why they hadn't told him there was a famous lion in Hwange. His employees didn't know there was a famous lion in Hwange named Cecil either. In other words, Cecil wasn't even known to the senior parks people in Hwange by name. He was known by name by the Oxford study group and a couple of tourist lodges in the area of Cecil's territory. In other words, he really wasn't famous until the media got hold of the story.
As far as discretion and flying under the radar it is again a fine line. I don't believe some idiot should take a picture of a dead animal with their boot on its head while pumping their fist in the air as one extreme. On the other end though I don't think we should not hunt because there is a research group nearby, or because that hunt might bring bad press.
Let me take that a bit further. I've seen quotes and pictures from AH used on anti websites to help their cause. Quotes were made in jest or misquoted. So.... should we use some discretion and demand that Jerome shut down the website? I mean one of those quotes could well be the starting of the next Cecil, you just never know....
And flying under the radar is what has gotten hunters and conservatives in trouble to begin with. We have to make our position heard and known. We must be respectful, but we must NOT be quiet! Going into the 2016 election I really thought the conservative portion of the States was truly in vast majority. I was wrong. Due to this, I won't be quiet again.
Ok, rant over, for now.
Side note - I'm still standing by original position that this one may not cause the "rain" that everyone is so afraid of. I just googled Xanda lion and the last article is 20 hours old. Articles most places also aren't allowing comments, which is obviously good. Only the anti sites seem to be allowing. No front page on any major publication yet that I've seen.
And has anyone seen mention of this on FB? Other than the DSC statement I haven't. After Cecil that's all my feed was and I actually posted my own opinion because I had so many questions.
We will know in a week for sure, but I still believe this is a non-event. And even if it is an event, let's use it to spread our side of the story!
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. That's the way politics are played around here.
when I see Bricks sheep above)
