There's No Need For This Shit, Part Two

Don't whine at me about how I'm being so PC.  If I'm telling you that coffee is hot, or I'm banning the sale of large soft drinks, maybe I'm being PC.  This has nothing to do with that.  This is one of those tipping points, those straws which break the camel's back.

An American dentist went to Africa and paid a huge fee for the "privilege" of bagging a trophy lion.  His guide disregarded all law and protocol, and used bait to lure a distinctive, black-maned lion -- "Cecil", radio-collared, part of a study, and popular among the locals -- away from his protected preserve so said dentist could easily kill him.  Which he did.  Cecil was fish in a barrel.

All involved are in deep trouble, as they should be.  Which is sort of beside the point.

The point is, why, in this day and age, is this sort of activity permitted at all?  Why is it allowed, anywhere, under any set of "rules"?  "Big-game" hunting, "trophy" hunting serves no purpose other than barbaric blood lust and macho posturing.  It's an anachronism, and there's no need for it.  Minnesota dentists are not killing African lions for food.

Years ago, mid-1960's, my grade-school basketball team went to a team party at the country estate of a guy who was a friend of our coach.  This guy was a high-roller, with his own nine-hole golf course, complete with carts for us to drive around.  There was a barbecue and swimming.  We had a blast.

But what I remember most was this man's house, especially his large "trophy" room.  He was a big-game hunter who'd been around the world, and the proof was all over the place: stuffed exotic animals -- some heads, some whole -- antlers, pelts, bear-skin rugs, tiger-skin rugs, bones, tusks, big fish, you name it.  There was even, I shit you not, an elephant-foot trash basket and a gorilla-hand ashtray.

At the time, as a young boy, I was fascinated, impressed.  Over time, though, I realized this man's "hobby" was hideous.

There's no need for this shit, especially today.  Trophy hunting is a gruesome, masturbatory ego-massage, and should be completely banned worldwide.  If the tables were turned, would you want your head mounted on a wall?