Elephants, rhinos, zebras and various species of antelope were regular sights on visits to game parks on school trips and on family outings.
I’ll never forget the day when my elementary class visited the local vet to see an injured wild dog that had been brought in for treatment — a rare event in the country’s second-largest city, Bulawayo.
So like many others…More: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/07/29/cecil–lion-death/30826405/
Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist who acknowledged hunting and killing Cecil, a beloved lion in Zimbabwe, is now the one being hounded on the Internet by protesters flooding his social media, creating online petitions and mocking him on parody accounts.
Over 273,000 tweets contained the trending hashtag #CeciltheLion on Twitter in the past 24 hours after the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, which is not part of the Zimbabwe government, alleged in a statement on Tuesday that Palmer paid $50,000 for the chance to kill Cecil the lion in early July. ABC News has not been able to independently confirm that figure.
Palmer responded later Tuesday, saying in a statement that he “deeply” regretted the pursuit of the early July hunt in Zimbabwe that “resulted in the taking of this lion.” He added that he “had no idea” Cecil the lion was a “known, local favorite, was collared and part of a study. I hired several professional guides and they secured all proper permits. To my knowledge, everything about this trip was legal and properly handled and conducted.”
But the Internet wasn’t satisfied with Palmer’s apology and descended upon on the Minnesota dentist on social media. Palmer’s Facebook page for his dental practice, River Bluff Dental, was flooded with expletives directed towards him and death threats. The website was seemingly taken down Tuesday evening and was not up as of Wednesday morning.
Palmer’s Yelp page for his practice has also received an overwhelming amount of sarcastic reviews attacking him for killing Cecil. The page was still up as of Wednesday morning.
“I hope your patients abandoned you and that you are never able to earn a living again so that you can no longer bankroll your lust for killing,” a user by the name of Mike C. wrote on the page.
“Five Stars at being a miserable excuse of a human being,” another user by the name of Thomas D. wrote. “You are not a hunter but a coward!”
A parody account mocking Palmer and his dental practice was also created on Twitter under the handle @RiverBluffDental.
Additionally, online petitions to both U.S. and Zimbabwe officials have garnered thousands of supporters.
An online petition to President Obama on Change.org demanded “justice for Cecil” and for the creation of new laws protecting big game from being hunted outside of the U.S. and brought back. Over 7,200 supporters signed the petition as of Wednesday morning.
Another petition on Care2 Petitions was addressed to Zimbabwe Republic President Robert Gabriel Mugabe and also demanded “justice for Cecil” and for the country to “stop issuing hunting permits to kill endangered animals.” The petition had over 350,000 signatures as of Wednesday morning.
Palmer and his spokesman Jon Austin did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment on the outpouring on social media. River Bluff Dental was closed Tuesday and today.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a statement today noting that the agency is “deeply concerned about the recent killing of Cecil the lion.”
“We are currently gathering facts about the issue and will assist Zimbabwe officials in whatever manner requested. It is up to all of us — not just the people of Africa — to ensure that healthy, wild populations of animals continue to roam the savanna for generations to come,” the agency said in its statement.
In 2008, Palmer pleaded guilty to making false statements to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about a black bear he shot and killed in Wisconsin outside of an authorized hunting zone, according to court documents.
Though Palmer said in his Tuesday statement that he had “not been contacted by authorities in Zimbabwe or in the U.S. about this situation,” the Associated Press reported that Zimbabwe police said they were looking for Palmer, who is facing poaching charges.
“We arrested two people and now we are looking for Palmer in connection with the same case,” Zimbabwe Republic Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told the AP.
A professional hunter named Theo Bronkhorst and a landowner named Honest Trymore Ndlovu are facing criminal poaching charges in connection with Cecil’s death and are set to appear in court today, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management authority said in a joint statement along with the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe on Tuesday.
300,000
we’ve got 198,641 signatures, help us get to 300,000
On July 1, Cecil the lion, one of the most famous animals in one of Zimbabwe’s national parks, was shot by a bow hunter. The hunter was a dentist from Minnesota who paid $55,000 for a hunting permit before shooting the 13-year-old big cat.
Please sign the petition to demand justice for Cecil! Tell Zimbabwe to stop issuing hunting permits to kill endangered animals!
The hunters reportedly lured Cecil out of Hwange National Park, where it is illegal to kill wildlife, at night. Cecil was shot with a bow and arrow. The wounded lion didn’t die until 40 hours later, when the hunters tracked him down and shot him with a rifle. They then skinned and beheaded him. The Zimbabwe Professional Hunters and Guides Association confirmed that Cecil was killed outside the park on private land, and an investigation is ongoing into the legality of the hunt.
The legend of Cecil started about three and a half years ago, when the then-10-year-old lion was kicked out of his pride, beaten by younger, more powerful males. Hunters argue that as loners, prideless male lions aren’t as important to sustaining lion populations.
But Cecil wasn’t finished. He soon teamed up with another lone male named Jericho, and the lions regained control of the region’s two prides, one of which consists of three lionesses and seven cubs under seven months old.
The loss of Cecil most likely spells the end of Jericho’s reign, and the possible loss of the pride’s cubs. Jericho, as a single male, will be unable to defend the two prides and cubs from new males that invade the territory. This is what we most often see happening in these cases. Infanticide is the most likely outcome.
Please sign the petition to demand justice for Cecil! Tell Zimbabwe to stop issuing hunting permits to kill endangered animals!
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With his striking mane and relaxed manner around the cameras, Cecil the lion was one of the stars of Zimbabwe’s biggest national park.
Now park rangers and safari lovers have been left devastated after the much-loved lion was horrifically killed by a hunter.
After wounding the great beast with an arrow, the depraved hunter spent two days tracking down the injured lion before killing the animal with a rifle. After skinning the corpse, the lion’s noble head was hacking off and taken by the hunter as a hunting trophy.
The death of the 13-year-old big cat has left conservators deeply worried for the safety of several lion cubs, who are now living unprotected in the park.
PRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois hunters may target bobcats beginning next year after Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a law Tuesday.
The Humane Society of the United States issued a statement condemning the “absurd and outlandish exaggerations” upon which lawmakers relied to garner support.
One of the proposal’s sponsors, Democratic Rep. Patrick Verschoore of Milan, pointed out there are as many as 5,000 bobcats in Illinois today. Supporters say that’s ten times more than at any time in the past two decades.
No more than 300 bobcats may be hunted or trapped during a season running from Nov. 1 to Feb. 15. State-issued permits will cost $5.
But the first season won’t begin until 2016, said Chris Young, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The state must first require necessary permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which requires proper tagging of bobcat pelts.
“Hunters and trappers play an important role in managing resources and paying for conservation services, and Illinois homeowners should be given the ability to manage wildlife that are causing problems on their property,” Catherine Kelly, spokeswoman for the governor, an avid hunter, said in a prepared statement. “If at any time the species is threatened, the IDNR will suspend hunting and trapping.”
Opponents argued bobcats aren’t hunted for eating, just for sport by those seeking a prize and bragging rights.
In a prepared statement, Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society, criticized Rauner’s action and for ignoring what he said was overwhelming Illinois-taxpayer opposition to authorized hunting.
“To get the bill passed through the Legislature,” Pacelle said, “lawmakers relied on absurd and outlandish exaggerations about bobcats — who are shy and elusive creatures that only weigh slightly more than an average house cat — and it’s unfortunate that the Governor apparently fell for this fear-mongering.”
Alligator hunting permits sell out within minutes
Within 20 minutes of going on sale Tuesday, the 920 alligator hunting permits offered by the state were sold out.
Alligator hunting season does not begin until the end of August, but the process to get a permit began at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
July 10, 2015
Paul McCartney has spoken out about the British government’s impending amendment that will once again open the door for fox hunting in England and Wales. In a statement, the bassist and longtime animal rights activist called the sport “cruel and unnecessary” and threatened that, by passing the bill, the conservative Tory party “would lose support from ordinary people and animal lovers like myself.”
“The people of Britain are behind this Tory government on many things, but the vast majority of us will be against them if hunting is reintroduced,” McCartney said. In 2004, the British government placed stricter restrictions on fox hunting, which was practiced legally for sport for nearly five centuries until the legislation passed. However, current Prime Minister David Cameron revealed in March he hoped to repeal the ban as long as the fox hunts were “appropriate” and done “efficiently,” The Guardian reports.
McCartney isn’t the only rocker to argue against renewing fox hunts: On July 9th, Queen guitarist Brian May appeared on BBC’s Newsnight to slam the amendment, which will be put to a vote on July 15th. “There is no justification for the hunting of foxes on the grounds of control of foxes,” May said. “They breed them to hunt; it’s all about people out there trying to catch foxes for fun. They like causing pain and this is what Cameron is endorsing.”
May appeared on Newsnight to debate fox hunting with a member of the Countryside Alliance, a group May called “a bunch of lying bastards.” Things only became more contemptuous from there.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/paul-mccartney-condemns-british-government-over-fox-hunting-20150710#ixzz3fWMuehoH
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According to Ammoland, Canada In The Rough “ran on Global TV for eight years until the day Keith Beasley received a telephone call from a Global network executive telling him that the network would no longer sell him airtime for Canada in the Rough.”
And Keith Beasley claims the reason behind the cancellation is simple: “Canada in the Rough shows hunting and firearms ownership in a positive light.”
The Beasley brothers said:
It had nothing to do with ratings, and it had nothing to do with what we were. It had everything to do with our content. Our content was guns and hunting. And just like that, the Canadian hunting landscape changed on a dime, and we’ve never recovered from it.
Ammoland paraphrased the Global TV rationale: “Hunting is politically incorrect [and the network no longer] had the courage to continue televising this Canadian outdoor heritage activity.”
So, programs that show hunting as a conservation and subsistence practice, which are the things hunting ultimately boils down to, cannot be shown, even in a country where people travel from all over the world to hunt.
Why? Because political correctness dictates it.
(AP Photo/The Wildlife Center, Alissa Mundt) If lawmakers can’t tell the different between a saber-toothed tiger, which preyed on elephants and rhinos, and a bobcat, which eats mice and rats, it’s no wonder the Legislature passed a foolish bill to allow bobcat hunting in Illinois.
EDITORIAL
Gov. Bruce Rauner should veto the bill before lawmakers start comparing the shy, elusive bobcats to marauding dragons.
Bobcats have only recently recovered from the overhunting that put them on Illinois’ threatened species list, but they are not back in large numbers. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the Legislature from voting to allow bobcat hunting again for the first time in 40 years.
One lawmaker during the debate compared bobcats to the fearsome saber-toothed tiger. Another lawmaker called bobcats ferocious. To hear the debate, laments the Humane Society of the United States, you wouldn’t know there’s no record of a bobcat killing a human — ever.
The bobcats, though, are at risk — of being caught in leghold traps that can cause them to suffer for hours or of dying in other painful ways.
The real reason people want to hunt bobcats is because they make good trophies and their valuable spotted pelts can be sold on the international market. That’s not a good enough reason to put the species in jeopardy again. People in other countries can make their mittens out of something else.
At first the House of Representatives voted to reject this law, but then flip-flopped and passed it narrowly. They had it right the first time.
Let’s hope Gov. Rauner knows the difference between a saber-toothed tiger and a bobcat and vetoes this bill.
Bears are facing imminent danger as the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) considers a proposal that would open a trophy hunt on Florida’s still-recovering population of black bears for the first time in over 20 years. As a Florida resident, I have always valued the abundant and diverse wildlife that this state has to offer, and I need your help to keep Florida’s bears protected.
Florida bears were only recently removed from the endangered species list, and the majority of Floridians oppose this hunt. The FWC doesn’t even know how many bears there are in the state – the last statewide population count was 13 years ago!
If this hunt is approved at the FWC’s June 24th meeting, hundreds of bears could be slaughtered as early as this October. Once approved, it is also possible that the FWC will allow incredibly cruel and barbaric killing methods, including hounding — where bears are chased by packs of radio-collared dogs so that houndsmen can easily shoot bears off of tree branches, and baiting — where bears are lured by piles of doughnuts and other pastries, and shot while they’re gorging themselves.
Despite hearing from thousands of residents opposed to this trophy hunt, the FWC blatantly ignored those voices. In fact, the FWC Commission Chair blew off the opinions of anyone who didn’t agree with him, condescendingly stating: “[t]hose people don’t know what they’re talking about… They think we’re talking about teddy bears.” Don’t let them silence you!
Governor Rick Scott appoints the FWC wildlife commissioners, and has the power to put a stop to this misguided, scientifically indefensible trophy hunt. Florida is one of the nation’s top tourist destinations, and Governor Scott needs to know that the public doesn’t want to visit a state that promotes cruelty.
Please join me in asking Florida Governor Rick Scott to call off this hunt and show that Florida values its wildlife and the voices of its residents.
Exposing the Big Game 