I was never what you’d call a hunting enthusiast, much to the dismay of some of my family members. For reasons still unknown, I resisted the pressure to dress in camouflage, coat myself in deer urine, and trudge into the blistering cold.
I guess you could say I was an outcast, possibly even a disappointment, because I never wanted to hunt. It’s not that I don’t like guns. I think the real reason is because I’ve never wanted to shoot anything.
I realize I’m in the vast minority with this stance because, based on a bounty of news reports, it seems people like to shoot just about everything that moves -- police officers, unarmed black men, and lions named Cecil.
In the case of Cecil, his death is proof you never want to shoot anything with a name. You can kill a lion in the jungle, just make sure said lion hasn’t endeared itself to some animal rights group and been dubbed a “local personality.” If it has, you’re suddenly the one getting hunted, which I suppose is fitting enough.
If nothing else, the death of Cecil the Lion is beaming a light on just what a huge sport big-game hunting has become. Most of us have likely heard the basic details of this incident: A Minnesota dentist paid $50,000 to hunt a lion in Africa, eventually killing, skinning and decapitating the lion named Cecil.
My normal process when someone mentions sports is to think about football, basketball or some other playful diversion with a jumbo-tron. But apparently trophy hunting is becoming quite the sport as an estimated 600 lions were killed on such hunts last year. And that’s just lions. Also popular are rhinos, giraffes, leopards, elephants and polar bears.
A giraffe would present an intriguing sports trophy. I’m not sure where you’d put something 18-feet tall, but hey, what an easy conversation starter. It would be hard to overlook the 800-pound giraffe in the room.
But here’s where our happy sports story begins to take a twisted turn. The more endangered the animal, the more desirable it is for big-game hunters.
If you think paying $50,000 to kill a lion is a steep price, hunters engaged in a bidding war earlier this year for the right to kill an endangered Namibian black rhino. The permit eventually sold for $350,000.
This is where our sports hunting efforts are becoming misguided. I don’t think I’m bestowing any great level of insight when I say we shouldn’t hunt an animal into extinction, even if it would make for a handsome trophy. However, that appears to be what’s happening as sports hunting is said to have reduced the African lion population by 60 percent since the mid-1980s.
I say if you want to shoot something, set your sights on an animal not on the endangered species list. Myself, when it comes to shooting, I’ve always preferred a basketball.