Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

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Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

Postby Skip » Thu Jul 30, 2015 1:23 pm

Some dentist shoots a lion and it becomes a national story and everyone is outraged. Meanwhile these enraged people eat their chickens, cows, fish and other animals without giving it a second thought.
"The fundamental principle of ethics is reverence for life" Albert Schweitzer
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Re: Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

Postby vgpedlr » Thu Jul 30, 2015 2:01 pm

Skip wrote:Some dentist shoots a lion and it becomes a national story and everyone is outraged. Meanwhile these enraged people eat their chickens, cows, fish and other animals without giving it a second thought.

My reaction exactly. What makes that lion so much more special than any other animal. If all those angry people followed a vegan lifestyle, I'd understand. But I doubt that they do.
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Re: Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

Postby olindaspider » Thu Jul 30, 2015 2:14 pm

‘What lion?,’ Zimbabweans ask, amid global Cecil circus

http://nypost.com/2015/07/30/what-lion- ... il-circus/
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Re: Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

Postby BlueHeron » Thu Jul 30, 2015 2:26 pm

People could argue that the lion's corpse was just left to rot, so this killing was purely for the "fun" of it. This would make it different even from deer hunting, since hunters eat deer. And, frankly, I'm glad that attention has been brought to trophy hunting and that people are getting to the point where that seems appalling. I'll call that progress. The people of my state (Michigan) have just voted against the trophy hunting of wolves, but the legislature is saying it's OK, so there's a court case going on, and I don't know if the trophy hunt is going to be allowed or not.

But the upshot is that, for most people, killing an animal for pleasure is OK if the pleasure is taste.
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Re: Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

Postby smudgemom » Thu Jul 30, 2015 3:50 pm

Yeah, this is a hot-button topic on another forum I visit. It was an illegal kill. That I get. But the same emotion was paid to trophy kills (which are legal)...and wildlife kills where the hunter eats his kill (again, legal).

Everyone's lighting candles & falling on their knees, slapping their hands together, praying to the heavens in remorse to Cecil.

Unfortunately among all this feel-good, compassionate emotion, I mention the cow-chicken-fish-pig,etc angle of killing animals...when I'm answered with responses like,

"There are people who can't survive on plant food alone, and the myth that humans were built to only eat a plant based diet is a myth." And, "cultures honor their food, not kill & walk away from it"...all this to defend their right to chomp on a hamburger while mourning for Cecil.

To take it one step further, TIME reported 3 elephants were poached in Zimbabwe on Monday for their ivory...with nary a word about them. Or even the 300 elephants that were killed in 2006 when poachers poisoned the lake water where these elephants drank. Nary a word about these. I AM glad, though, all this social media & celebrity focus is on poaching & maybe something will be done in the long run...and the trickle affect is inspires.

But yes....it's a MAJOR hypocrisy the meat aisle at the local grocery isn't met with the same response.
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Re: Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

Postby patty » Thu Jul 30, 2015 4:05 pm

i don't think it is hypocritical for people practicing SAD to feel sad... sadness can be a deep deep deep love. Animals can take you places deeper than man can:) all indigenous people know this. Interesting to be the most hated man:) We just might have a new vegan, as his cortisol must be going wild. There are over 50 trillion cells in the body that depend on the view of the environment. When fear is felt it is felt through out the Whole body, and is sends the cortisol into protection vs. growth. The blood rushes to the limbs leaving the vital organs unprotected for necessary growth. All nature knows when nature is in abundance, populations increase, when populations increase, nature decreases. Dr. McDougall shares in "The Starch Solution" plants survive all seasons starch centered. Nature knows to look beyond seasons as summer doesn't oppose winter.

Aloha, patty
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Re: Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

Postby Dougalling » Thu Jul 30, 2015 4:47 pm

I loved Cecil :(
Over the years, there were many stories about Cecil. People around the world knew Cecil.
He wasn't just some random lion no one knew.
He was like a wild pet.
Last edited by Dougalling on Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

Postby AnnaSpanna » Thu Jul 30, 2015 4:49 pm

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Re: Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

Postby dteresa » Thu Jul 30, 2015 4:57 pm

people recognize cows and pigs and chickens as food but not lions. The masai have always killed lions to protect their herds. Never mind the lion. Even here, if a dog falls into a well or gets stuck on ice on a frigid lake, the news will always show the rescue effort involved to save the animal. Again. Dogs are not thought of as food (in our culture) and thus an emotional response to an endangered animal which is probably someone's pet. I am willing to bet that if a child's pet chicken were to fall into a well, there would be some kind of rescue effort made with pictures of the happy reunion of child and chicken.

So what we are looking at here is not logic, but some kind of emotional response based on the milieu in which one is raised.

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Re: Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

Postby patty » Thu Jul 30, 2015 5:12 pm

AnnaSpanna wrote:http://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/cecil-the-lion-killed-in-zimbabwe.php

I thought this was a good article.


Great article to share... shared on face book, the collapse of the dream of individuality.

Mahalo, patty
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Re: Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

Postby BlueHeron » Thu Jul 30, 2015 5:18 pm

I mentioned the connection betwee Cecil and other animals today and got a big eye roll, which made me feel pretty hopeless. It's like the idea isn't even worth engaging. But I started thinking about what reaction you would have gotten advocating recognizing Black people as having equal rights 200 years ago. We still have the ugliness of racism, but massive change happened in a relatively short amount of time. Cultures can shift. But it's hard to see the outrage by people who see nothing wrong with torturing animals because we think they taste good.
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Re: Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

Postby Tatterhood » Thu Jul 30, 2015 5:30 pm

I get what you're responding to here. I couldn't go on FB all day yesterday or today. All the celebrities with their statements...most of whom couldn't care less about the pain and suffering that their diets cause for thousands of animals per year. By tomorrow, Cecil will be forgotten.

Most people are completely disconnected from the animals that they eat. If lion burgers were common because we had domesticated lions instead of cows, and cows were endangered and illegally hunted, and now a beautiful cow had been killed by some wealthy dentist from the states, people would be just as upset, writing long posts on FB while chomping on their lion burger from Lion King while failing to notice the irony and hypocrisy of the situation.
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Re: Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

Postby jeff_t » Thu Jul 30, 2015 6:07 pm

This book explains the phenomena well.

Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Dogs-Pigs-Wear-Cows/dp/1573245054
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Re: Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

Postby dailycarbs » Thu Jul 30, 2015 7:09 pm

smudgemom wrote:To take it one step further, TIME reported 3 elephants were poached in Zimbabwe on Monday for their ivory...with nary a word about them. Or even the 300 elephants that were killed in 2006 when poachers poisoned the lake water where these elephants drank. Nary a word about these. I AM glad, though, all this social media & celebrity focus is on poaching & maybe something will be done in the long run...and the trickle affect is inspires.



I think there is outrage fatigue. One is a tragedy but 300 is a statistic.
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Re: Lion is shot --- hypocrisy of it

Postby viv » Thu Jul 30, 2015 7:12 pm

I have been most upset and angry over Cecil's death and I don't believe it's hypocritical at all. Many humans are still in the swamps and I believe that Cecil's death will open the door to increased awareness of the suffering of all animals.

The dentist who killed Cecil is nowhere to be found, well at least he knows to stay hidden - he's a marked man.

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