This pitiful excuse for a human being

I agree Eloethan. Why use your money to destroy life when you could use it to preserve life. He could have spent the money going on a safari where the only shooting is done with a camera and that money would have been used towards conservation. Better yet he could have donated the money to one of the many orphanages in that country. Still I don't suppose that would make him feel "man" enough!

I have to say I don't agree with the threats he is receiving. Someone has apparently posted his home and business addresses and telephone numbers online.

Despicable. And actually the threats he's been receiving don't particularly worry me. I'd like him to know what it is to feel hunted, to feel fear.

I just don't understand the mentality of anyone who, not only regards what he does as a leisure activity, but is prepared to travel to other parts of the world to kill animals. Far from making him a 'man', it makes him pathetic. A 'man' would face the lion without such a weapon!

I can't find the words to describe the sorrow I feel for this beautiful animal that has been killed for someone's idea of fun, nor for the anger I feel towards him and the idiots who enabled him to do it. Born Free Foundation and other campaigns need help to educate people about canned hunting and to protect the hundreds of big cats, elephants and rhinos that are being murdered every day. It would be great to hear that this is the last one, but I fear some animals will be hunted to extinction. What a grotesque pastime!

What a horror, senseless wanton killing for what purpose. I absolutely do not understand these people who hunt animals for sport and then pose with their "trophy" it's almost a throwback to a bygone era when people didn't know any better. I believe one of his victims was a rhino I thought they were an endangered species. Surely if you go on an African safari it's to see animals in their natural habitat ALIVE, not dead. He says he's sorry now, I suspect it's because of the backlash, hell hath no fury like animal lovers. He deserves the vitriol and yes I hate that message "I've got loads of money so I can buy a licence to kill animals" Vile man!

Totally dreadful- who are these people and why- how do they become obsessed with killing beautiful wild animals? The lion was the head of the rpide, and his any cubs will now face probable terrible deaths, mauled by new males wanting to take over the pride. And with a cross-bow??? The lion was badly injured and had to be chased for a long time until they could shoot him out of his terrible pain.

The young dentist now says is he sorry and regrets his actions- but I do not believe a word of it- he is just sorry to see his dental practice going down the pan. Hopefully this sort of event, going viral on FB and other networks will deter some from doing such awful deeds?

It is really hard to see what motivates people to want to track and kill animals when it is not for food.

Do people feel it is worse /same as fox hunting for example?

I also find the breeding of 'game' animals purely to be hunted and killed is unhealthy too. However we do have to think if it is also a result of countries desperate for tourism to bring income in to the country. If it i what can ordinary people do to change the situation?

If @fleetstreetfox is right most of the hunt fee money does not go towards conservation, or indeed to the poorer people who need to improve their lives.

thatbags that is what I thought. Some countries are between a 'rock and a hard place'. They need cash flow to maintain wild life habitats/ be in a position to resist multinationals (think MacDonalds and Amazon etc) some tough choices to be made. Just sorry that there are people who like the idea of killing purely for pleasure.

I've saw this a lot on Facebook. There is also a young American woman who hunts for trophies and has her photo taken with all her murdered animals. It's appalling I thought people in our society had moved on since those days of the great white hunter. Lots of hunting safaris are still going on in Africa with people paying thousands of dollars for the privilege.i saw this mans photo with the dean lion, leopard,buffalo and rhino, photos were revolting. It is reported the lions head was cut off as his trophy, I wonder how he will ever get that through customs and into America but then it obviously does happen.

He didnt look young granjura - he looked old enough to know better!

I have just read on Facebook that this man has had to go into hiding because of all the threats that have been made against him.

It's horrible. Allegedly the poor creature took 40 hours to die and then they cut off its head for a trophy. Pictures have emerged of this 'man' with rhinos, cheetahs and other beautiful creatures that have suffered a similar fate at his hands

I can't describe how shocked and sickened I am that anyone could do this.
I wasn't aware that such hunting of animals was still going on. How can anyone derive pleasure from such a dreadful, disgusting thing? He deserves whatever he now gets. He is loathsome.

I think I heard on Breakfast that Zimbabwe now sells (live?) elephants to China for £25,000 a time.

I also heard that the man blamed his guides for making him do it.

It has only come to public attention because this particular lion is sort of famous in some quarters. There was a wildlife expert on TV today saying that it is commonplace for people to do things like this. Maybe now something might be done, although I'm not sure what. There have been other 'hunters' online saying they will now make it their business to track down this lion's brother and kill him too.

We were in South Africa last year - watched lions stroll past us to a kill, saw elephants in family groups and a mother rhino carefully guiding her calf's early steps. One magnificent bull elephant even walked calmly up to our vehicle and waved his trunk over my head (we all sat holding our breaths). I am not a spiritual person, but I looked into his eyes and tears rolled down my face through the joy of it.

How anyone can find killing such animals a sport is beyond me. (The poaching situation is another matter and will see the last of the rhinos die inside 10 years....this is not in doubt and will happen despite any of the efforts being made nowadays).
Killing any animal as a pastime, hobby, sport, is indefensible and the legal/not legal argument is spurious. This man aimed at a magnificent creature, pulled the trigger and it died....WHY?????

He used a crossbow which is somehow doubly cruel. I don't consider myself an animal lover by any stretch of the imagination, but I can't even kill a spider. I don't think I have the right to end its life.

DBH's cousin lives nearby to that dentist, so we regularly get photos of what is going on outside his house. I wondered if some sort of bloodlust overcomes all sense in some people. He has destroyed all hope of being able to live peacefully in his house, and his job has gone down the pan too. He is going to have to start all over again.

I would like to make him eat it.

Apparently in some areas lions are bred to be released in fenced areas specifically to be shot. They're used to people and with modern guns, practically impossible to miss. It costs a stupid amount of money too - which is the excuse for doing it. I don't know how much this chap spent to hunt this supposedly wild lion.

Too much money, no sense and absolutely no compassion. I wouldn't want him as my dentist.

here have been other hunters lions online saying they will now make it their business to track down this lion's dentist's brother and kill him too
To paraphrase an earlier post.

If only. Beyond , just very very

So called 'canned hunting' is truly shocking - and what is almost worse, is that tourist pay good money to go and 'pet' the lion cubs in the places where they are raised, and become part of process of making the lions used to human presence- and making them just sitting 'ducks' for useless rich shots! Most of the tourists who take part in 'pet a lion' have NO IDEA whatsoever what the end 'game' is.

But this is also done by many fox Hunts in the UK, either trapping a pregnant vixen and let her give birth in an artificial sett in an enclosure and then raised by hand - so the cubs are later easy to hunt - or cubs caught and as said above (which totally destroys the argument that foyx hunting is to control numbers).

I understand that the lion's successor will kill the five or six male offspring of Cecil, so more totally unnecessary deaths. The photos of the killer's 'trophies' are nauseating to put it mildly.

Very, very sad

That always happens when there is a new alpha male in the pride, whichever way he has got the position (often by fighting and badly injuring or killing his predecessor).