Poor ol` Cecil the Lion

[Jackstar]

Horrible things being said in this thread.

[BellBoy]

One of the first things I saw when I woke up this morning... I'll be laughing all day. Thank you!

[WhiteCrow]

I'm honestly not sure if this is bragging or complaining at this point but can we get back to the issue at hand here?  Namely, none of us give a fuck about a dead lion, or a Ted Nugent wanna-be dentist.  Nor should we. Thank you.

Obviously you have been chip'ed

[DigitalPigSnuggler]

When I was in Kenya we were told of a Japanese couple who had rented a 4x4 after landing in Nairobi and went all by themselves into the Serengeti national park. No guides, no common sense apparently. The story goes they found a pride of lions lazing in the sun, split into two groups a few yards apart... Mr Japanese gets out of the 4x4 and asks Mrs Japanese to video him stood between the two groups.. Presumably shock overcame her as she videoed him being the lions' next meal.

[albrecht]

http://www.wday.com/news/3809570-zimbabwe-conservation-task-force-apologizes-story-about-jericho-lion-says-hes-alive-and
Good news is that Jericho, and Cecil's cubs, are alive and well. Apparently the organization made a mistake or....was trying to capitalize on the situation. In fact Oxford University Department of Zoology/WildCRU says Jericho is NOT even Cecil's brother.

Not to link or equate the social outrage, or lack there of, but sort of like how Sanger's Planned Parenthood turned their website into a screen that said "extremists have attacked and website down" after the dead baby parts for money videos.

[Jackstar]

Good news is that Jericho, and Cecil's cubs, are alive and well.

I am certainly opposed to unlawful hunting, i.e. poaching, but I really don't think it makes me a bad person when I say I am relatively indifferent to the status of the cubs. Perhaps they carry the gene for "tame enough to follow poachers into a trap," and should be removed from the lion genome.

Who am I to say? I don't judge. Just like Cecil... he probably ate his share of cub in his time. I bet baby lion is delicious.

From a scientific standpoint, of course, the researchers would probably prefer that the wildlife they're studying stays alive, but that's just observer bias.

[albrecht]

I am certainly opposed to unlawful hunting, i.e. poaching, but I really don't think it makes me a bad person when I say I am relatively indifferent to the status of the cubs. Perhaps they carry the gene for "tame enough to follow poachers into a trap," and should be removed from the lion genome.

Who am I to say? I don't judge. Just like Cecil... he probably ate his share of cub in his time. I bet baby lion is delicious.

From a scientific standpoint, of course, the researchers would probably prefer that the wildlife they're studying stays alive, but that's just observer bias.

Like everything in the post-modern world (and even before it considering poaching, who many a tale were the "good guys".) If a Robinhood type is doing it, or an illegal today, to get some game off of those evil rich types, it is ok. Private property and what not is Evil. But also, sorta, of like "is a lion dead- if unobserved" (or vice-versa) and "can we even, really, know that lion's name, once we say it, or determine which dentist/doctor killed it, except upon observing, but then we don't where or which lion was killed?"

[Meister_000]

I am certainly opposed to unlawful hunting, i.e. poaching, but I really don't think it makes me a bad person when I say I am relatively indifferent to the status of the cubs. Perhaps they carry the gene for "tame enough to follow poachers into a trap," and should be removed from the lion genome.

Who am I to say? I don't judge. Just like Cecil... he probably ate his share of cub in his time. I bet baby lion is delicious.

From a scientific standpoint, of course, the researchers would probably prefer that the wildlife they're studying stays alive, but that's just observer bias.

Sad thing is, I think you're being honest here Jack, and not merely baiting people. You actually just said;

> "I really don't think it makes me a bad person when I say I am relatively indifferent to the status of the cubs."<

You are correct, Jack, but only in the sense that the descriptor you used in referring to your self-hood was imprecise. What that makes you, is, not a "bad person", but rather, less than human, in which case, discussing your imagined "person-hood", good or bad, is, as they say, not even on the table. When was last time you actually had direct contact with a sentient creature? (for God's sake!)

[Jackstar]

When was last time you actually had direct contact with a sentient creature? (for God's sake!)

My cat just rubbed against my leg, and I told her, "Soon, my precious, soon--we will eat his liver." (Does this count?)

[Meister_000]

My cat just rubbed against my leg, and I told her, "Soon, my precious, soon--we will eat his liver." (Does this count?)

What would count here is the disconnect even if I were to believe you have a cat. The fact of such a disconnect, however, remains, again, the telling and sad thing. That you are unable to extend whatever capacity of feeling you do possess beyond you and yours is and was the heart of the matter. Such capacity is what defines the size of a man and the limits of his conscience, in other words, his humanity.

[PathoJen]

Hello Bellgab! I saw this just now and thought I would share...it's got nothing to do with Cecil, but I felt this was an appropriate home for it.

[FightTheFuture]

Hello Bellgab! I saw this just now and thought I would share...it's got nothing to do with Cecil, but I felt this was an appropriate home for it.

Amen to that.

I have a large, vicious looking pit bull. In reality, he' a little pussycat. When I walk him around, I can tell a lot about the people he encounters.

[PathoJen]

Amen to that.

I have a large, vicious looking pit bull. In reality, he' a little pussycat. When I walk him around, I can tell a lot about the people he encounters.

You can always trust your dog.

[onan]

You can always trust your dog.

Not with anything leather.

[aldousburbank]

You can always trust your dog.

Depends on the dog me thinks. I had a dog, or did the dog have me? A little Australian shep type, Smokey was known by some as the nicest, or smartest dog in the world, but I knew her as simply the best dog ever. It was on a large rural property where we had many gatherings and plenty visitors so Smokey was a friend to many and all for a decade. She came out of nowhere running up the long driveway, slightly wounded, just days after our little sonny boy started proclaiming loudly, "I want a dog!"

Smokey went through a ton of stuff with us as somewhat of a tribe and seemed to connect with people personally to the degree that even after we moved 100 miles away, people would ask about her on the phone (sometimes before asking how I was), or even come visit with their Smokey dog. She not only made relations with lots of humans, but she also had an understanding of all the other creatures which inhabited or passed through our riparian zone natural causeway on the banks of the Gila River. She learned to communicate with me so effectively that it was like language. Even when sleeping she could get through to me with a certain tone of bark, often muffled and not in scare mode- but specifically to inform me of the various levels of her concern for our security. She had ways of differentiating, to me, between- Hey dude we've got javalinas in the garden, to someone is coming and I don't recognize their sound, to get the F up, the fuzz is here. Even on a psychic level she seemed to inform me of whut up.

I often used to take her with me on my desert pilgrimages in search of The One True Thing, sometimes day trips, others for overnights. She was already on to what is and would be sometimes partner in the journey, sometimes guide. Once when we reached a particular point in scaling a range, she sniffed around, froze, and gave me her patented and unmistakable mountain lion alert. There's no way she was going any further and there was no way I was going back or not continuing so I said "Smokey, you're  going to have to go home then." From where we were we could see the home ranch in the valley below. I had to encourage her a bit but she scampered home obediently and knowingly but I felt kind of bad. And there was a large lion about which surely was very aware of me but I never saw, save for the chill of seeing it's large paw tracks in the sand, crossing mine (!) later that evening. Anyhoo, I got back late that night after some awesome moonlight walking down the wide sand arroyo which serves as a natural highway from the mountains to the river for every creature, except the large cats who walk the upper adjacent ridges. Smokey was not home when I got back so I freaked. Went back up the arroyo hollering, calling but no Smokers. Every day for the next couple, I went hiking back out, all the way to the mountain lion turf, but no Smokers. And so it was that on the third day, she comes running up the driveway just like the first time I saw her, but with this huge look of... something... on her mug. Smiley, happy, enlightened even. I was like, "Smokey! Wha Happen? Did you get lost, did you get laid, did you find The One True Thing?"

"Yes", was her only reply.

But there was one thing you could not trust her with, as awesome as she was. Skunks. No matter what, if there was a skunk about, that skunk was about to have Smokey as quite possibly its last sight on earth. She would then roll about in the dirt with foam and snot and all manner of apparent suffering from the in your face noxious spray. But there was no command or any power other than a leash which could stop her from imbibing in her skunk delirium habit. And we had plenty o' skunks so this happened frequently in the summers. Dang dog. She was the best dog ever! 

[Jackstar]

Someone stole my dog when I was seven.

[onan]

Someone stole my dog when I was seven.

It wasn't a yellow Lab, was it?

[The General]

Someone stole my dog when I was seven.

Was the thief a dentist? 
Probably.

[Jackstar]

True story, in case you were wondering. He was a purebred athlete.

Another true story: my first memory is stepping on a honeybee when I was two years old. I've never forgotten the world we inhabit, and once one remembers, one never will either.

[ItsOver]

It wasn't a yellow Lab, was it?

Maybe a picture will help.

[Jackstar]

I love the subtext. "Your dog wasn't stolen. You just shot it for drooling."


When you guys are first against the wall, I'm gonna think about taking up smoking again for a long sweet minute before signing the pardon. We'll see how funny you are when you're sweatin' then.

[PathoJen]

Maybe a picture will help.

Bahahah! Made my day!

[PathoJen]

Not with anything leather.

Ha! You know what I mean 

[Jackstar]

Ha! You know what I mean 

me2

[PathoJen]

What a great story Aldousburbank

[Jackstar]

What a great story Aldousburbank

Say, do you know any dentists?

[MrMajestik]

Another true story: my first memory is stepping on a honeybee when I was two years old.

What the hell  kind of monster child were you? Stomping on poor bees at the age of 2?

#beesgivehoneywhatthefuckdoyougive

[Jackstar]

Stomping on poor bees at the age of 2?

I didn't see it and I wouldn't have known what it was if I had. I was two. It was years later before I understood that honeybees die after defending themselves from attack. My burden of guilt left a shadow you could not conceive of.

It was years after that, that I learned that bees are being systematically annihilated by neonicotonoid pesticides. My lingering remorse over my inadvertent bee murder has long since dissipated, tell you what what.

Where do you get your drinking water?

[ItsOver]

You were very fortunate.  Bee stomping is well known as an entry act to hamster stomping.