OK,  Ladies and gentlemen,   here is a rant.  

 FIRST OFF,  Let me make a few things clear.  

1.         This may anger or upset some of you.   I am aware, and while it is not intentional,  I feel that my opinion is needed,  is understandable,  and is something that is worth consideration.    

2.       I realize that there are some who will read this, and without consideration of anything I have said,  will brand me a horrible person.     That is something that I cannot fix, and will no further concern myself with.     Please,  feel free to not partake in anything I have to say further.

3.       Profanity will be used as an enunciation to my writing.   I feel very frustrated, angry, and appalled by things of late.   Using a profane word is the only way that I can find, using text,  to really get the message of my ire across.    Please forgive that.

4.       I will reveal things about how I see the world, and how I perceive the people in it.   This may upset some of you.   I cannot help that.

5.       This is NOT REQUIRED READING.   You do not need to read, consider,  think about, ruminate, ponder,  emphasize, or take part of this in any way.  I am not trampling your rights,  your soul or your religion.     I am putting my opinion out into the universe, and there it will be done, energy expelled, and no longer a burden on my mind.

Without further ado,  I will proceed.  Once you pass this sentence, you cannot blame me for anything.  I have given you enough warning.

So, In recent news on the internet,  Cecil the Lion was shot by a trophy hunter.    Within the last two days,   another collared lion was shot and killed as a trophy.   These events are sad,  they are pointless,  and they are really shitty.  With this, I will agree.   I am, myself,  a hunter.   I hunt game animals for food.  As I pursue further avenues of education and knowledge,  I will widen my uses of the anumals that I hunt to include the bones for tools,  the hides for clothing and materiel, and other uses.   As of now,  I have legally hunted animals for food only.    I cannot say that I will NEVER shoot a bear, a wolf, a lion or any number of rare or prestigious animal,  but I can say that if I am ever hungry enough to do so,  chances are I am being hunted right back.

I used to shoot gophers as a kid.   When someone called me out about the whole “Don’t shoot it if you are not going to eat it”  argument,  I agreed whole heartedly,  and proceeded to eat the gopher I had shot by cooking it on a stick on an open fire.  

I have not shot gophers since.

That, however,  is not why we are here.   We are here about cecil the lion.   We are here about trophy hunting. And we are here about the chaos that such a thing seems to have brought onto the world.

To start,  I do not agree with trophy hunting.  I think I have made that clear.   HOWEVER,  I do not agree with the hate that this man has received, and what this new hunter in the news will now endure.   

First off,  these were PAID and GUIDED hunts.    These hunts were LEGAL in the countries in which they occurred, and where sanctioned by the state.  They were NOT within a protected area as declared by that country,  and they were not clandestine.   Using the word “Poached”  is fucking inflammatory and moronic.   To use it here is to make people more irrational and angry when they need to think about it and use their heads and common fucking sense.    Thank you all, for making it worse.

 Poachers kill animals illegally, and waste them.   They do not post their pictures, they do not brag about their kills.    What they do is a crime, and bragging and posting will GET THEM CAUGHT.    Its ironic that when it comes to interpreting the meaning of these pictures,  that the criminal element is the one being considerate of the outcomes.    

The lions were killed by people PAYING to go do so.  Despite what people are not going to say,   these hunters are putting money into the economies around where they are hunting.    Not a good enough reason,  you say?  Fine.    Find some other way to support those populations.   Give up your latte every day, and send them the money.     People are only seeing a dead lion,  and nothing else.

Next,   to all of you who think that Americans are the only ones with this “Hunter” culture,   you better fucking pick up a history book.   The British and the Germans hunted for centuries.  The British practically INVENTED SAFARI HUNTING FOR SPORT.      People seem to forget that the white population of the North American Continent come from fucking Europe, and as such, brought their traditions with them.   The Czechoslovakians or Albanians or whoever hunt bears for sport,  and the Chinese feed the poacher market for shit like rhino horn or tiger liver for their fucked up little libido pills that don’t do shit.   But no one seems to be in an uproar about that.

The man who shot cecil?   A dentist I believe.    Or was, until protesters shut him down.  Over what?  A cat?   OK,  the man is a fucking asshole who needed to feel macho and kill a lion.  I’ll agree,  he is a douche.   Did he roast that lion on a goddamn spit?   No?   Well, dentist man,   you are a grade A cocksmoker and, well, fuck you.    But No,   I won’t go out of my way to destroy your business,  make you close your doors,  make your family have issues,  and more so,  PUT YOUR EMPLOYEES OUT OF WORK, AND CAUSE THEM AND THEIR FAMILIES HARDSHIP.   You internet people,  who get out your pitchforks,  who have avenged a dead cat,   have caused NUMEROUS INNOCENTS issues.    If that Dentist has 5 assistants,  two secretaries, and 3 nurses on staff, lets say each with three family members (makes a house hold of four people),  you and you” internet justice”  have removed the income from FOURTY people.    And before you say “That’s what they get for working for an animal murderer”, STOP THE FUCK IN YOUR TRACKS, AND ASK WHEN THE LAST TIME YOUR HIGH RANKING BOSS TOLD YOU SHIT ABOUT HIS PERSONAL LIKES.  Stop and ask yourself if, when you got your job,  that pays for your internet,  clothing, car, phone, computer, lattes,  food,  beer and feeds your families,   did you ever consider turning the job down because of some future event your boss could possibly do. 

I bet you haven’t.   And I am willing to bet that no one will have the guts to walk into their place of work tomorrow and ask their boss if they are a hunter.   And I am willing to bet that the need for your stuff,  for your things,  will outweigh your need to tell your boss off for being a hunter.

Now that we have made a villain of a man who shot it for fun,   are we going to lose our collected minds on the people who’s culture revolve around hunting and killing?   Masai and Zulu tribes, I believe,   hold killing a lion as a high esteem even in a young man’s voyage to adulthood.    Or what about Inuit and the Aleut natives in Alaska,  who get to go out and hunt whales for food and cultural heritage?   Are we all wise and knowing internet people going to vilify  and destroy them?

So, Here, the lion thing is put to rest.    The lion getting shot is tragic, yes,  but it happened.   Now the repercussions down the line will do NOTHING other than cause conflict.  Happy arguing I guess.  I haven’t the time for it.

But NOW,  we come to an interesting thing,  as question.    It has arisen, in this arguing,  that hunting and eating of meat is natural. And, naturally,  out come vegans and vegetarians who wave the bloody shirt,  or hide,  whatever you want to call it,  and say that there is no reason and meat is murder,  etc. etc. etc.

Here is my question:  In your perfect world,  when there is no more meat, no more hunting,  no more leather,  what will you do with the animals?

This is a serious question.  

Animals,  like humans (which are a fucking animal),  and like most every other organism on the planet, including plants,  consume resources.  Trees, plants, and Fungi consume water and nutrients from the soil.  Animals drink water, eat food, reproduce,   eat and drink and reproduce,    in the circle of life until they die,  where as their bodies rot,  provide food and nutrients back into the soil,  and then the process repeats.

However,  this planet is only so big.  This planet is finite.   This planet cannot sustain everyone and everything and every organism if there is more resources being consumed than there are being replenished.   

No meat?  What will you do with the cows and other livestock that have been bred for that purpose?   Let them free?  To vie with the wild animals for resources? 

What about the animals dependent on us?  Dairy Cows in the US don’t even know what a bull is.    That’s right,  because we humans have had to change and control everything,  there is a species of cow that can’t fuck!   Worse,  even if they figure it out,   they have such issues with natural, unassisted birth,  that they are completely dependent on the farmer to help them!

What will you do to control their populations?  You do not want to kill them,  so how do you control them?   Animals that breed faster than the attrition rate of nature on their population will outstrip and decimate their resource bases.    Mice plagues in Australia are the perfect example.   Explosions of populations of mice  that consume everything in their path,  migrate and consume more until the only thing left is EACH OTHER.   So many mice that the roads are impassible because the trucks will lose control because, instead of road surface, they are hydroplaning on the crushed bodies of millions of mice!

What about spaying, neutering,  gelding or otherwise rendering them unable to breed?   You then have an animal that consumes resources with NO return to the world order.     Violent rapists and murderers in prison,  they are fed,  housed and cared for,  yet return nothing to society or nature.   These are a drain on resources that are already unacceptable.
Also, a fixed animal cannot breed, and therefore,  cannot extend the species.    If you fix all the animals,  they will eventually die, and then there will be no more.

Let predators take care of them?    A healthy pack of Wolves will only take out the old and the sick when it comes to elk.   The healthy population survive to consume more resources.   If a pack takes out one healthy, breeding elk out of 20,  you still have 19 elk that will create 19 more.    And obviously,  these are small, microcosm numbers here.   Imagine on an actual scale?    70000 elk in a place, and the wolves kill 1000 of them,  you have 69000 elk that will create (lets say there is a 50/50 split in gender) will 34500 more if breeding successfully.   

This is all arbitrary numbers though.   They are illustrating a point.

Now, though, what about Humans?  Forget all other animals, Humans are the worst.  We consume and destroy and move and repeat the process all over the globe.  And we consume more than just food and water.   Lumber, rock, oil, gold, metals, soil health.   We render places dead to the point where the resources can’t come back!    And yet,  NONE of these people who are outraged at a lion being shot seem a bit goddamn concerned about the Human Problem.   We can’t even take care of our own kind,  where the fuck do we get off thinking we can take care of the world animal population.

OH, and Vegetarians and Vegans?   You want us to eat only what is grown?   Great Idea.    Are you going to see the whole planet turned into a farm to feed the world population tofu and soy?   What are you going to do when you need to expand the farms into the wildlands, taking resources away from the animals?  What then? Are you going to expend the resources,  consume what is required,  to grow and harvest and farm and repeat on your crops on a level that will feed a world population of 20 billion?

HUMANS EAT MEAT.   You want protein without meat?  Eat fucking bugs!    Paleo Man and the Paleo diet?   Most of that protein came from Bugs, and Carrion.    SO,  cock roaches and Road kill.     Guts and marrowbones and rotted flesh when something fresh could not be sourced.     How is that for a paleo diet?  

And that is really what I think is truly fucked up,  is the whole screaming mess of it all….I think that Cecil the lion,  a giant cat,  that I have never heard of before this story broke,  is getting more press,  more outrage, and more conviction then that Woman in India who was gang raped to fucking death on a bus by some 30 guys.    Congratulations,   you have let us all down, internet.      So,  a human life,  extinguished in violence,  is less important than a goddamn cat.     To be honest,  if it cured the world of rape and violence and racial or religious hatred,  I would hunt down and kill every last one of the lions on this planet.   I would sacrifice all of them for the greater good.  

Where is your loud voices stopping rape?

Where are your loud voices condemning continued police and racial violence?

Where are your loud voices making political change happen in this country?

Where are your loud voices calling for the hungry to be fed,  the homeless to be sheltered, and the sick to be made healthy?

Where are you protesters,  you vigilantes,   when it comes to shutting down corrupt politicians and greedy businesses?

Apparently,  you are all paper tigers.    No bite against big things,  because it has all been surpassed and muted by the killing of a lion.

Is changing what can be changed,  what needs to be changed, too much for you all?
 

How many of you don’t give a fuck about the lion,   but feel like if you aren’t screaming about it,  you are a loser?

How many jumped on this bandwagon to feel like you were a part of something,  and will jump on the next one to be “part of something?”

How many of you are actually willing to change this fucking world,  to risk yourself,  to be uncomfortable, to bleed  and willing to sacrifice shit to get stuff done?   

I think maybe 5.    I think maybe not that many.    Frankly,   I have little to no faith in anything the human race has to offer.      Apparently,  I just need to join the rest of the sheep, and get angry about a lion.

IMAGINE HOW THE WORLD COULD BE CHANGED IF WE ACTUALLY GOT ANGRY AND HAD CONVICTIONS ABOUT THINGS THAT MATTERED!

Rant over.   If you have made it this far,  I can only hope one thing:   Not that I changed your mind,  or convinced you.     I can only hope that I have made you see that ALL things have Multiple angles,  and all need to be acknowledged.