Hunting lions is not the way to help African people

What makes trophy sport hunting a sport?  Walter Palmer and his guide baited Cecil out of the National Park with another dead animal to a place where he could shoot and wound the lion. The lion was following a food source and had no weapon to defend himself.

That is not a sport but men do that and then take a picture of their kill which they think proves their “manhood.”  If you want a real fight, join the military and fight terrorists who are killing innocent people in the Middle East. Of course those people have guns and shoot back.

If you want to help the people in Africa, use all that money you have to dig wells or provide medical care. According to the Associated Press, trophy hunting represents only 3.2 percent of the tourism revenue in Zimbabwe.

If you only shoot with a camera, many more tourists can go to Africa to see live animals. Africa’s lion population has shrunk by 82 percent over the last century, also according to the Associated Press.  Years from now if people want to see a lion they will have to go to your warehouse to look at a dusty lion head.

Trophy hunting also takes the best looking animals, not the sick and aged.   Nature kills those animals off when they are unable to hunt for food.  That is the law of nature so don’t say it is for conservation.

— Ann Powlas

Salisbury