Cecil Versus The Man (Or Woman)

I am careful about how I respond in cases like the killing of Cecil the Lion. Because while I absolutely cannot fathom or condone the killing of wildlife for fun, and will never defend such acts, I am aware of the incredibly difficult circumstances facing people on the ground in Zimbabwe, quite possibly leading to poor choices for economic survival. So while I suffer rage, sorrow and indignation that I want to direct not only at the American trophy hunter who killed Cecil for fun, but also at the Zimbabwean man who facilitated the killing for money, I also know that people in Zimbabwe are struggling against increasingly impossible odds. The common man in Zimbabwe today is facing choices we westerners could barely comprehend in our lives of relative ease, rule and order. Many or even most have lost everything they and their forefathers have worked for. Some in the matter of hours or even minutes. Black and white alike.

"Perhaps it is time we stop arguing about which matters more, and consider that their fates are inseparable, and matter to each other."

For me, the survival of our wilderness and wildlife anywhere is as important as that of humanity, apart from anything else, because humanity depends upon the wilderness for survival whether we recognize it or not. It's what makes our planet tick. It's also what makes our planet extraordinary and worthwhile living on. But I do understand that it's frustrating to a man forced to flee his country to survive, or to a family decimated by the rule of a sociopath, the starving man feeding his starving children, the third generation farmer who lost it all to the greed of corrupt government officials, that the dire plight of millions of Zimbabweans is not nearly as interesting to we westerners as the death of one lion. 

But while lions, elephants and rhinos would get along just fine without humans, humanity would suffer a terrible, empty, lonely, unpredictable future fraught with unintended consequences should we allow them to vanish from our earth. We should not underestimate the consequences of the death of a magnificent patriarch like Cecil to a species that is fastean lives. As for which matters more? Perhaps it is time we stop arguing about which matters mo approaching extinction.

My final analysis? Lions matter. But so do Zimbabwean lives. As for which matters more? Perhaps it is time we stop arguing about which matters more, and consider that their fates are inseparable, and matter to each other.

Yours truly looking at my favorite animal.
A live one!!

Photos by the uberfabulous Billy Dodson, www.savannaimages.com