Was the dentist who killed Cecil moved by seeing the animal die?

Why do some humans feel the need to inflict suffering on animals for ‘sport’? I ask myself that question yet again after reading about the dentist who paid $55,000 for the privilege of killing Zimbabwe’s oldest and best loved lion.

He shot the animal, called Cecil, with a cross bow, before beheading and skinning him.

I can understand people hunting for food, to survive, as was the norm in past centuries. The Native Americans, for example, killed buffalo to feed and clothe themselves.

Recreational killing of animals demeans our species. And it isn’t limited to any one nation or continent. Spain has bull fighting, in which a powerful creature is reduced to a whimpering hulk by repeated stabbing with lances prior to its agonising death.

Right now, Minister Heather Humphries is considering whether to grant a license for another season of enclosed hare coursing. If she gives it the go-ahead, thousands of these gentle creatures will be forced to run from greyhounds at venues nationwide.

I wonder if the man who killed Cecil the Lion had any misgivings before or after the ‘sport;, if he was moved in the slightest by the sight of that proverbial King of the Jungle brought low and destroyed for a few minutes fun.

Looking at the pictures of that majestic creature, its body hacked to pieces, I am reinforced in my view that the best way to shoot an animal is with a camera.

John Fitzgerald

Lower Coyne Street

Callan

Co. Kilkenny