Cecil the lion has certainly generated a lot of buzz and anger at trophy hunting but as expected the story that will determine the future of the African lion has been conveniently ignored.
An intelligent debate would start with a review of former CBS Sixty Minutes’ reporter Bob Simon’s clip a few years ago in which he asked the question “Does the African lion have a future?”
The essence of Bob’s story was the lion population was in serious decline because they were being poisoned!
Not hard to figure, subsequent to Cecil, a lion killed an African tourist guide connected to the same lion pride.
Savannah Guthrie, the NBC news broadcaster on the morning Today Show, interviewed a scientist who claimed he had been involved with a significant number of lion studies.
The scientist did not criticize the trophy hunt as Savannah had expected but made the point that he wanted to support an initiative to help rebuild the lion population that had declined from 400,000 to 33,000.
Whatever the sum of the strategy and tactics necessary to rebuild a lion population, money will be the kicker so is the trophy hunt part of the problem or part of the solution. After all, African economies have little resources for conservation and little sympathy for the lion!
Barry Brandow, Grand Forks