[swamp snorkler]

Originally Posted by fishinpox

ok here my .02$

ive hunted in africa , i have first hand seen what hunter dollars do for the community, for conservation , and for education . if there is no monetary value placed on "game" then the locals will either 1) hunt the animal into extinction or 2) try to kill very last animal off that is seen as competition to their cattle and sheep . one of the areas i hunted in africa was once farm land and nearly all of the native game was wiped out by farmers UNTIL hunter dollars ( primarily U.S. hunter dollars) was pumped into this area so fences could be removed , native wildlife re introduced and MANAGED . it is all about the management . just this one area has had easily 20-30,000,000.00 dollars put into it by an american , not including all the money generated by hunters once it was made huntable again. the outfit i hunted with has started a CHRISTIAN school that is FREE or cost very little to have local children their, i have seen the school first hand and have made financial commitments to provide a christian education to a local girl my wife and i have adopted ...again hunter dollars going back into the community . for all the people that say i only shoot what i eat , ok thats fine that is your choice but again i have first hand experience watching every part of EVERY animal i shot in africa get eaten / used and for the most part get used by someone who is living in poverty like you could never imagine. Generally when "trophy" hunting the hunter is seeking a large animal , usually the largest ( horned )animals animals are also the oldest . but hunters shooting the oldest ( usually the dominant male) they are actually helping allow newer , younger blood to breed .
Now to talk about the way this animal was hunted ... people are complaining saying it was lured out of a protected area , maybe so BUT 99% of lion hunts are hunts invloving baiting a lion to come in so you can kill it , did the hunter know it was lured in from a national park ? who knows. ive read that this guy paid 55,000.00 for this hunt , i also know he is an avid hunter , this amount of a trophy fee usually goes along with a free range lion hunt not a high fenced hunt ( which most of the lion hunts in africa are but the fenced hunts a usually cheaper ) . now the tracking collar , did the hunter see it before he shot? if so shame on him , but i can see how it would be hard to see as that lion has a massive mane . the mane also points to something else , free range lions do not look as "pretty" or full maned as cecil does , they generally have more scaring on their face / body and the manes are not as full UNLESS if they are raised in captivity . did the hunter know this? again who knows, all i can do is speak from my personal experiences .

I was thinking if he shot it with a cross-bow he was closs enough to see the color, never thought about the mane covering it, good point.