This pitiful excuse for a human being

I suppose we'd all accept that if a lion or similar animal was raiding our village and killing our children, some kind of search party would be necessary to locate the beast and kill it in order to protect ourselves.

I can also accept (just) that on rare occasions, culling of animals is necessary for the benefit of the animals and their habitat.

I absolutely don't understand the mentality of hunting anything for fun. The photographs all over the internet (as described by granjura above) are nauseating. The one of the young woman who killed the glorious giraffe made me feel physically sick when it popped up on my news feed some weeks ago.

I live in hope that Cecil's murder will widen the debate about these reserves. That kind of hunting has nothing to do with conservation, no matter how hard they try and dress it up as such.

today a photo of a whole smiling family, posing being an elephant the dad has just shot- just eating grass. And one of a young woman, next to a girafe she's just shot through the neck with a cross bow and dying- again, just eating leaves. It is endless it seems ...

But all I can think is 'why why why' and mainly what events in peoples lives turn them to this- and then want to involve their whole family. Including the blooding of kids joining the hunt (fox) for the first time- to make them a 'man' (even the girls). Why, oh why- and more why.

There is something twisted in the mind of anyone who enjoys killing an animal for enjoyment ,

I cannot understand the mentality of people who hunt or kill animals merely for sport there's nothing sporting about it.

Couldn't agree more Anniebach.

And as my son wisely pointed out, the uproar isn't because he killed a lion, but because he killed a famous lion. At least Cecil's death has highlighted the cruelty that goes on in this so called sport, but it will soon be forgotten.

Why the uproar because it's a beautiful wild animal, this country enjoys blood sports , all blood sports are wrong , be it this vile man in Africa or the windsors in Scotland with their deer stalking

In short I don't pretend to understand the man's motives. That is a comment about me, not anyone else. Others can, and will, think what they like.

Your surmises may well be right, nightowl. My point was simply that it was less cruel to finish the beast off than to leave it to bleed. I think we're not really talking about the same thing.

He didn't stalk the animal out of kindness but because he wanted his 'trophy'. He's a pathetic individual who doesn't seem to have developed human characteristics of compassion and empathy.

Perhaps. I'm not willing to speculate on that.

Maybe so thatbags, but it must have made him feel like a proper hunter to stalk the creature, adding to his "joy" .

The pursueing for 40 hours in order to finish the job is actually one good thing out of a bad scenario. Cruel people would just have left the animal to bleed to death.

An arrow from a powerful crossbow is as lethal as a bullet from a rifle, so long as it hits the right place. His initial shot obviously wasn't good enough. It is sad that this sort of event might give sport archery a bad name.

Yes, iam, agreed, I was just pointing something out because it seemed that some people weren't aware of what happens naturally. One kind of death of lion cubs is as bad as another whether it's 'natural' or not. Death is death and life doesn't exist without it. No, I'm not justifying wothisname's shooting of wild animals, just musing impersonally.

I doubt he'll get a prison sentence or any kind of punishment other than what the lynch mob has already inflicted on him and his business (like sunseeker, I don't agree with lynch mob tactics; they are just as barbaric as what he's done) because the shooting did not take place in his home country and I doubt if he'll be extradited.

Sadly this is not an isolated incident.

I can't imagine how anyone can get any pleasure out of killing animals.

Apparently he was accused of sexual harrassment by a receptionist and had to pay her a large amount of money. Obviously a fine figure of a man. On his website he only mentions watching wildlife, obviously didn't want his clients to know about the killing - well they do now! A better entry would have read "I like to spend my spare time torturing animals and groping women"

Morals apart what sort of idiot goes after large game with a bow and arrows (even a crossbow) Why does he think people use rifles - because they are more efficient.

What a cruel wicked man. I truly hope they make an example of him and give him an appropriate prison sentence.

Taking pleasure from killing such a magnificent beast is disgusting.

This morning I watched footage of Cecil the lion with his pride. Such a magnificently beautiful animal.
I have no words suitable.....

OK, he wasn't grinning

Nature sorting itself out isn't the issue. It's the wanton killing. Recently a picture was posted on my FB page of a member of Metallica posing with a big grin over his stupid face, beside the body of a magnificent bear he had shot. Big deal! He had the gun.

I suspect most, if not all of us on here accept that nature is not always pretty. It's natural though - which this dreadful crime certainly isn't.

From the new male leader's point of view they are totally necessary deaths so that it is his offspring that populate the pride, not some other lion's.

Nature is not always pretty.

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).

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

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).