cecil-and-lioness-brent-stapelkampPhoto by Brent Stapelkamp

Yes, this whole Cecil thing does bother me.  I’ve seen a lot of criticism of people posting about Cecil when there are so many other awful things going on in the world these days.  But it’s not binary. And it’s not about “hunting,” because dragging an elephant as bait to lure a protected animal out of its sanctuary, wounding it with a bow and arrow and not tracking it immediately and not ending its suffering until 40 hours later, that is not hunting. And there’s also an interest curve, things pop and wane.  There are trends though about those who are making public waves about this.

Another issue, think about Palmer’s choice when he learned that he’d injured and then killed a protected lion. His response was not to contact authorities and report the dead lion. Instead it was to behead and skin him and take those “trophies.” That moment he had a choice, he blew it. Since then, he’s hidden, sent out messages avoiding his responsibility, and not until the shitstorm hit did he acknowledge his actions. This is indicative of his moral compass and code, and consistent with prior acts of poaching and sexual harassment.

I’ve had some time now to consider what shows up in my computer… Of those of us who are commenting on Cecil, we can be concerned about many issues at once, we MUST be concerned about many issues at once.  Most of the people I’ve seen posting about Cecil are activist sorts, people also standing up for equal rights, those who worked for gay marriage, an end to police shootings and abuse, prosecution of bank fraud and rabid capitalism, sex trafficking, homelessness, essentially, demonstrating that we need to pay attention to all these issues for anything to change.  We can and will be concerned about many, many things.  Cecil will be high on the “interest curve” for a while and then we’ll be following the Ray Tensing trail, and then there’s the four Clean Line transmission proposals trying to steamroll their way through state and federal scrutiny. On the other hand, those who are not commenting about Cecil are the same ones not standing up about all things political, ethical, and illegal. I’m noticing the silence. Will watch this over time and see if this hypothesis holds!

The Science of why you are so upset about Cecil the Lion

Bottom line:

Small writes that “most humans are… not just ignorant of but indifferent to almost all of the species on the planet.” In fact, people are “biophobic” meaning they are “slightly to extremely negative towards the majority of species they encounter.”

My issue here is that this is such a blatant case of narcissism on parade, a demonstration of white male privilege in the extreme:

WaltPalmerDSCF1269

This guy is a privileged white male dentist who pays out more money than most of us make in a year to go around the world and kill beautiful rare animals and bring pieces of them home and display on his walls.   Oh, and he wants to convince us that he’s Putin II.  Oh, please…  urp… Well, then again, considering what we know of Putin, perhaps there are similarities.

N-A-R-C-I-S-S-I-S-M

As a part of his sentence, I’d like to see it include restitution of all he’s paid for this “hunting” to animal sanctuaries; that he must photograph in the wild each of the animals he’s listed as having killed, whether by his “hunting groups” or in criminal records (yes, go photograph a bear); that he face a public (and protected) public shaming; that he get a psych evaluation and follow the recommendation; that he lost his dentistry license for ethical breeches/unethical breaches.

That’s a start.

Here’s the Board of Dentistry’s Settlement regarding the sexual harassment claim against him in 2009 (note it is expressly not “Disciplinary Action”):

Walter Palmer_Agreement for Corrective Action – MN Board of Dentistry

And on NPR (I’d write that headline a bit different… “hunter?” … maybe just “Walt, call home!”):

U.S. Authorities Can’t Find Hunter Who Killed ‘Cecil the Lion’

Let’s keep on this guy… and let’s keep on all the other issues we care about, stop the Clean Line, all four of them, keep demonstrating at the Mall of America, jump up and with with glee as they shut down sand mines in the Driftless area, and run “Greenmark Solar” out of Red Wing!

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