If you ask me

An old and battle-scarred lion, past his prime and in his twilight years – just like Cecil the ‘famous’ lion would have been.

If you ask me, the recent media debacle over the killing of Cecil the lion is a sad testament to how sick our world has become. I am not talking about the morality or legality of killing that lion, for that is a whole different topic, but I am talking about the reaction of the media, the animal rightists and of some people posting on social media sites, to that killing.

The news media and social media ran hot with lots of different versions of the story, some of which was pure speculation, others were extreme flights of fantasy and still more were mischievous and deceitful. Somewhere, in amongst this media circus, the truth of the story was completely lost and the story has become so muddled and confused that we will probably never know the whole truth.

Instead of waiting for a fair and unbiased investigation, and for any appropriate legal action, a part of the world went mad and decided guilt based upon nothing more than the wailings of the animal rights brigade, guilt based on unverifiable posts on social media, guilt based upon the rantings of media personalities who care more for ratings than the truth, guilt based upon the grandstanding of politicians who sought to improve their public images and guilt based upon the questionable reports of the media who, so often, are motivated by profits at the expense of truth and justice.

Trial by media is not justice, in fact it denies justice and only serves to weaken our justice systems. It is a more despicable act than even the poaching of a lion, or any animal for that matter, could ever be.

It is the equivalent of mob violence. In the wild west, of the late 1800s, the accused would have been hauled away by the angry mob and lynched from the nearest tree, guilty or not. In 2015, the angry mob attacks from the safety, and relative anonymity, of the keyboard to electronically lynch the accused, guilty or not. Even in the wild west, a lynching was an illegal act; it should be to this day even if the rope is replaced with social media.

And all of this was for an animal described by the media as ‘world famous’ despite the fact that most people, including most Zimbabweans, had never heard of him before the media circus came to town. An animal that, at 13 years of age, was in his twilight years, was beyond breeding age and would not have lived for much longer, anyway, as most lions are dead by age 10.

About the News Reports:

Some of the other questionable aspects to the reports, concerning Cecil’s death, are as follows:

1.  Initially the report was alleged to have been made by the researchers who were tracking and studying the lions, however, later articles attributed the reports to Johnny Rodrigues who is not one of the researches at all. Instead, Johnny Rodrigues has been reported as a spokesman for the Zimbabwean Conservation Task Force (ZCTF) but, in other reports, is described as a fanatical member of an animal rights group.

2.  Many reports stated that Cecil was a protected animal, and this was falsely assumed because he was wearing a GPS tracking collar. However, many of the lions in that area were fitted with GPS collars so that their movements, their behaviour and even their deaths, by whatever cause (and this includes hunting), can be monitored and added to the study. Cecil was NOT a protected animal.

3. Many reports claimed that the lion was ‘lured’ out of Hwange National Park, however the researchers, who were tracking Cecil, later confirmed that he had been outside the park boundaries for quite some time. Indeed, animals do not understand what a National Park is and, as many of the boundaries around National Parks are little more than dirt tracks, it is extremely common, and in fact a daily occurrence, for many animals to wander in and out of parks.

4. It was alleged that the hunters dragged an elephant carcass behind their jeep to lure Cecil out of the park. Just think about this statement for a moment and remember how big the average African elephant is; dragging an ELEPHANT carcass behind a jeep!!!! Must have been one hell of a large and powerful jeep to be able to drag an elephant carcass over rough ground, through bushes and up and down inclines in the topography.

5. The hunters stated that they did not realise that Cecil was wearing a GPS collar until after they had recovered his body. Looking at all of the photos you see of Cecil, both alive and dead, and which were posted following his demise, this is quite believable because in not one single photo, that I have seen, is the GPS collar visible.

6. Only a couple of days after the report of Cecil’s demise, Johnny Rodrigues also reported that Cecil’s brother, Jericho, had also been killed but this report was quickly refuted by the researchers who had been tracking both Cecil and Jericho. At this point, and considering all of the questionable aspects to the reports, you have to wonder what Johnny Rodrigues’ true motives are.

This post is not written as a defence of Walter Palmer because, at this time, I know that I do not have all of the facts in order to form an opinion as to whether he is guilty or not. What I am saying is that NO ONE else has all the facts in order to decide guilt or innocence either, so why have so many people lost their minds and decided guilt without trial? No one in the media, on social media or anywhere outside the Zimbabwean National Parks Department, has the faintest idea of the truth and none of us should be persecuting Walter Palmer before justice has been seen to be done. If the game laws of Zimbabwe were breached then they should be prosecuted, it is that simple, but let’s keep things in perspective and leave this matter to the courts.

Note: As of early October 2015, Walter Palmer has returned to his home and his business with no charges laid by either the Zimbabwean or US governments. If Walter Palmer, or his guides, had been guilty of the crimes that the media reports, initiated by the fallacious reports of Johnny Rodrigues, then surely they would have been prosecuted – so all of the media frenzy was for nought!

• At the same time as this media lunacy, there are people dying all over the world from acts of terrorism, acts of tyranny, acts of crime but none of these incidents rate more than a passing mention.
• At the same time, children in third world countries are dying from disease, starvation, lack of clean water and from abuse, but they don’t count against a lion with a GPS collar and a silly name.
• At the same time, there are wars being fought all over the planet and the destruction does not just extend to the human world but into the animal world too. Wars, particularly in Africa, are almost always catastrophic for the wildlife trapped in the combat zone,
• At the same time, there are girls being cruelly circumcised, against their wishes, for obscure religious reasons, but their stories only rate occasional mention when the media needs to fill a gap in the programming.
• At the same time, women are oppressed and abused in many countries and this oppression often extends to murder and torture as a result of twisted religious beliefs and for the ‘honour’ of the family, but the media only report these incidents briefly.
• At the same time, poaching of African wildlife is occurring at an increasing rate and the death of one lion, who was already past his prime and of little or no value to the gene pool, is of little importance to the real issues of wildlife conservation. But the media only pay lip-service to true conservation programs.

In addition, in almost all of these important and tragic events, you will normally only find scant mention on the social media sites. The plight of starving children, abused women, refugees, victims of war, threatened and poached wildlife (that is, of course, only those animals without human names) and a host of other important and vital issues, are normally of little importance on social media sites. Pictures of pets doing dumb things and the aftermath of last night’s party, are almost always given priority on social media.

But kill a lion, with a GPS collar and a ridiculous name, and it seems that the world of social media has gone mad!

I, personally, have nothing but utter contempt for those people who have screamed loudest over Cecil the lion but who have remained silent over all of the other real horrors that occur almost every day on our planet. That contempt is only heightened by the realisation that many, who have cried the loudest, have done nothing for wildlife and true conservation programs up till now and are unlikely to do anything in the future. Let me stress that I am talking about real and viable conservation programs and that supporting the animal rights brigade is not helping conservation; animal liberation is NOT conservation.

The one sobering thought, throughout this madness, is that there are many, many more people who have not jumped onto the media bandwagon and who have sat back and waited for developments. The vocal minorities, those activists crying crocodile tears for Cecil, are still really only a relatively small number of people and politicians, like Barak Obama, need to keep that in mind before grandstanding on this issue.

As one, well-known, professional hunter remarked, if everyone who posted a comment about Cecil the lion, on social media, donated $1 to a legitimate conservation program instead of simply fuelling the frenzy, imagine the actual good we could have done for the wildlife of Africa. Instead, there are now poorly informed people calling for the dismantling of working and viable conservation programs with no idea of what to put in their place and if this happens, it will be a disaster for Africa’s wildlife.

As for the call to send Walter Palmer back to Zimbabwe for justice. In principle, if he has broken the laws of Zimbabwe, then he should go back and be judged in that country. However, let us not forget what Robert Gabriel Mugabe has done to Zimbabwe since he took power, but most notably what he has done, to this beautiful country, since 2000. In order to achieve his land seizure plan, which was a government sponsored criminal undertaking on a national scale, Mugabe purged the judiciary or anyone who could think and act impartially. The judges that survived the purge are those men who know how to hand down a decision that meets with the approval of the heirachy and truth and justice are not part of this equation. Accordingly, Zimbabwe is not a free and democratic nation with a free and impartial judiciary.

So, would there be a fair trial for Walter Palmer in Zimbabwe? Ha, not likely! It will most likely be even less fair than his trial by social media has been.

In conclusion to this post, I would just like to say:

Shame on the world,

Shame on the world for ignoring real and horrific events of vastly greater importance than the death of one old lion,

Shame on the world for exploding the Cecil story out of all proportion to its true importance and at the expense of other more important issues,

Shame on the world for ignoring the basic right to justice, and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, of all those involved directly in the “Cecil the lion” case,

Shame on the world for caring more about a named lion than starving and sick children, abused women, victims or war, terrorism, extremism, the oppression of millions of people across the globe and for not doing something constructive and beneficial for the wildlife of the world, and

Shame on the world for allowing the mainstream media and social media to drive this mass hysteria that is likely to do far more harm to realistic and working conservation programs than Walter Palmer’s arrow ever did to one old and, till now, almost unknown lion.

See also: The Killing of Cecil the Lion.

Postscript:

Since the ‘Cecil the Lion’ debacle has mostly subsided from the news and media of the world, the Zimbabwe Government has announced that NO charges will be laid in this case as NO laws were broken. However, contrary to the furor that accompanied the death of Cecil, there has been almost nothing said about this, no huge announcement by the MSM (main stream media) and barely a whimper on social media now that the truth has finally come out. Further, not surprisingly, absolutely nothing has been said about this by the animal liberationists and the ‘greenies’.

It seems that the truth about the death of Cecil the Lion was quite a different story to what the animal liberationists pushed into the MSM and which was splashed across social media worldwide. All of that hype, anger, chest beating and vilification of hunters was simply manufactured and there has been no mention of the damage that this has caused to real conservation programs in Africa and no apology to Walter Palmer for the lies, slander and hatred that was unfairly directed at him.

This whole issue rose to worldwide attention because the ‘greenies’ and animal liberationists believe that creating and spreading falsehoods is a valid tactic to further their misguided causes and this is not the first time that they have stooped to that level.

In short, yes they lied; imagine that!