Tourists Pay to Kill Lions as Trophies

In South Africa some 4,000 trapped lions are shot to death each year by rich tourists. This legal business practice,"Canned Hunting," makes money by breeding lions in captivity. When they are cubs tourists pay to cuddle them. When they grow larger they are locked in fenced areas where they cannot escape tourists who pay to kill them for trophies.

Up to 50,000 Euros is charged for permission to kill and take away the corpse of an adult male lion. From 2006 to 2008 the number of shot lions more than tripled; most of the killed were born in captivity. More of these coward-hunters are expected this year since South Africa hosts the World Cup.

Such practices in regard especially to foxes are permitted as business operations in some American states. The hand-reared foxes are put into fenced areas where pseudo-hunters can kill them, usually by following one of the human-friendly foxes up to a fence barrier and blasting it with an assault rifle. Additional money comes from the luxurious hunting lodges provided for customers.

All of this relates, of course, to the business of whale killing. With technically advanced search devices and military guns those on whaling ships are doing the equivalent of shooting fish in a bucket.

Our species uses the phrase "homo sapiens" to describe itself; maybe a better phrase would be something like homo assassinios. Comes a time...maybe...when -- many generations beyond now -- our descendants will say: "Why did they kill so unceasingly? Why was killing at the heart of their lives?"

Think this over-stated? Almost nothing is more political than eating. Each American eating meat from supermarkets and restaurants participates in the death of more than two thousand animals a year.

Then "civilization" adds in all matter of pseudo-hunters, baby seal killers, whalers, poachers, bushmeat eaters -- hundreds more. One study shows the English language has 85 words relating to killing, including:

ecocide destruction of the entire natural environment
ethnocide destruction of an entire culture
genocide destruction of an entire national, ethnic or religious group
mundicide destruction of the entire world
onmicide destruction of all living things
populicide killing of all people
speciocide killing of a species

To protest canned hunting in South Africa: https://www.secureconnect.at/4pfoten.org/petition/100427/