Agree to disagree... endangered species deserve protection, period.

Yep. So no telling how many younger, virile males were saved by getting rid of an old male who could only harm the herd at this point. The whole breeds future is at stake. They did what was best for all the other rhinos and for their future. Its herd management.

Protects the herd? Check
Produces money to fight poachers? Check
Feeds a bunch of villagers? Check

I agree with Danzig on this one, while it is offensive to me that rich folks can pay to be "great white hunters" and call what they do "sport", I think as Spock said, "the needs of the many..." I am a member of PETA (along with ASPCA, Humane Society and North Shore Animal Shelter) so I am acutely aware of animal rights issues...but one cannot wear blinders and refuse to accept that few issues are black and white.

This one is pretty black and white. Wonder why there is NO coverage here? Makes me pissed off and sick to my stomach at the same time.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...nned-year.html

"Animal advocates are celebrating a victorious announcement from the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA) that it will no longer acquire dolphins obtained from the controversial hunts in Taiji."

:)

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/victory-...#ixzz3bqNsR8SD

http://www.care2.com/causes/victory-...ariumsDolphins

mad dog!!!!
 

Well..mine is mad.
rescued a poor little kitten yesterday, about 4 weeks old. Hes soooooo cute

He is precious!!!

I'm afraid he's already spoiled rotten. Its a wonder I even saw him, poor thing.

If he were mine I would name his Cardus cause he's all cute and fuzzy and playful.

Oh wait... :D

(Kidding Cardus-ie - you know I love you :p).

(He is adorable, Danzig). :)

Lol

He seems to prefer laying on my chest, I'll spare you what hubby said about that! But I've let him nuzzle around my face too much, so thank goodness for alavert. The eyes, they itch.

Son wants to name him merlin, but....my first thought was Nikola, for the original mad scientist.
But then....Edmund Hillary came to mind, this cat is good at climbing up the leg and back, and then perches on my shoulder.

The dog....well. She's gotten better but I won't be letting them alone together any time soon. Ms jealousy

http://pets.thenest.com/causes-wolf-...tens-9231.html

Noticed a very small spot on kitty's cheek yesterday. Took him to vet, poor kitty had one of these in his little cheek.

Way to go, American trophy hunter. USA! USA! USA!

http://deadspin.com/dipshit-midweste...ion-1720587798

And more, including the d*psh*t's name:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...n-dentist.html

I see his practice's FB page and Twitter feed are now offline. Brave enough to lure an animal off the reserve, shoot it at night and then follow it for 40 hours while it dies slowly, but not enough to face criticism for it. Yeah, he's a real tough guy.

Well said.

He's very popular on yelp. Read the stellar reviews. Before this incident, he probably had 10 reviews. Now he has over 5000 reviews. I hope they extradite him to Zimbabwe and lock him up for 10 years. That probably won't happen but I think he will end up paying for what he did in one way or another.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/river-bluff-dental-bloomington

I hope you're right, Rupert. I would like him to be extradited to Zimbabwe (the US and Zimbabwe have a pretty generous extradition agreement with each other), but I suspect he'll pay a fine (which, since he can apparently afford $55,000 to hunt lions is not likely to be a hard financial hit on him) and that will be that. I think the court of public opinion is the only place he's likely to see any real financial damages, if it keeps people away from him as a dentist.

I'm not opposed to hunting (it preserves open wilderness, and hey, venison is freaking delicious), but I do not, do not, understand the obsession with hunting big game, especially predators. As was pointed out in another site following this story, lions aren't exactly challenging sport. They live in groups, so they aren't as aggressive as say, tigers, who are solitary, and in this case, Cecil was a particularly docile one who was accustomed to people, making him an easier target. There's no courage in "sport" like this; it's just an insecure little man trying to make himself feel like a tough guy.

Not to mention, the guy has killed a bear illegally (and then lied about it), and was fined for fishing without a license. He'll pay over 50K to kill a lion, but is too cheap to buy a fishing license. What a reprehensible human being. There is no way he didn't know the lion was being hunted illegally.

Plus, the young male who was part of the pride will probably now kill Cecil's six cubs, as that IS part of the natural cycle. Nice work, dentist. You killed seven lions for the price of one. Ugh.

:tro:

a repeat offender poacher. wonderful.

when i hunt, which is not often anymore, it's for food.
i don't and won't shoot anything that i won't eat. neither will hubby. i was lucky enough to watch two coyotes play one morning, like two dogs...it was hilarious. when i'd tell people about watching them play, invariably the other person would say 'you shoulda shot them'. i'd ask why. well, they eat turkeys and small deer. ok, isn't that part of nature?

the guy said he had no idea that the lion was who he was, or that he'd been on a game preserve...but i find when someone is unethical, they manage to find others like-minded to help them reach their goal.

jerk.
i hope that he gets the stiffest possible penalty.

and GR, hopefully the other male won't kill the cubs. i know new males to a pride do that, but i don't know that this will happen in this case, since the other male was already part of the pride...here's hoping.

In addition to poaching fines, he paid six figures to settle a sexual harassment claim against him by one of his employees:

https://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/lio...claim-reveals/

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slate...xtradited.html

could face charges both here and in zimbabwe.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/30/us/wal...uts/index.html

i hate seeing that picture of this douche holding the dead leopard. my favorite big cat.