I could write a heartfelt diatribe identifying all the horrible things that should be done to the men who did this, but people have already done this all over the Internet. I will try not to do that. I could write miles of text reflecting upon the personal pain this killing has caused me. Any feeling person, however, is feeling the same thing and I have no need to write anything at all.
One look at Cecil's commanding face is enough to engender more anger and hatred than just about any image in the press this week. How does one process the senselessness of a protected, endangered animal being slaughtered for no reason beyond money (the guides) and a personal whim (the shooter)? People are murdered viciously all the time, and it is disgusting. People shooting people. Innocent people, babies, children. For insane reasons. I think this lion murder has had a stronger effect on the world because there WERE reasons for the hunt to happen: poverty and wealth.
On the poverty side, if the guides weren't greedy for the large amount of cash they earned for luring poor Cecil to his death, if they had better ways to earn the money, I seriously doubt they would have done this heartless thing. What is the dentist's excuse? To bag a trophy head for his study? To say and to know in his heart that he was able to take down the King of the Jungle (albeit one that had been accustomed to being with people, so it was an easy kill.) Anyone with a heart and appreciation for the growing problem of wildlife extinction would simply know that hunting the endangered is a wrong and ignorant thing to do. How can this man face the world with what his greed and personal need has done? I seriously hope Karma follows him to his grave and every day is hell for him, as were the last 40 hours of the lion's death as it labored to live with an arrow in a serious wound, until he was finally put out of his misery with a gunshot. There are places in hell for bastards that would do something like this. I hope that it is full of lions that don't like people very much.
I am drawn to the images of Cecil that have appeared all over the web and news. I want to make a quilt of him. I also want to do something with other artists to generate more awareness of what it means to "hunt." A dear friend of mine hunts and has bagged deer, bears, foxes, and more. She says it is for the meat. I didn't know people ate fox meat. I can't understand it and it will always be a major difference in our values. I hate hunting, I think it is cruel to kill anything unless it is done very humanely and is for food. I can't be a hypocrite -- I have meat occasionally, but feel very guilty about it. I feed my dogs chicken every day. Meat and poultry is part of our lives. But lions, bears, and rhinos are not. Nor are dogs. It is our duty as a human race to protect other living and sentient creatures who inhabit this world with us, not hunt them. Who the hell are we as humans to do cruel things like this to other creatures?
Lions generally don't attack us unprovoked. Looks like they are much more intelligent than humans. I am sad and sickened. It is this kind of event that can spur people into action to promote more awareness. I have a thought of doing something, both with my art and with the art of others. Stay tuned.
What will you make today? For the good of the world and humanity?