In all the emotion surround # CecilTheLion , it ’s difficult to have a rational discussion on the topic . In response to reader requests , here ’s a succinct explanation of the issue .
This little piece was inspired by a reviewer discover Gary who emailed me asking why I had n’t reply to his gossip on the topic . This is the response I emailed him :
It should also be noted that I am not a lion or a prize hunter . I hunt down for intellectual nourishment . That ’s just my own agreement with my witting .

How hunting impart to that is that it attach an economical time value to the animal . Without that economic economic value , species like the Leo the Lion would have been killed off long ago . The locals do n’t want them . But , because mother fucker like Walter Palmer will vanish over and give $ 50k+ to buck one , that realise them worthful enough that land owners who would otherwise almost exclusively farm cattle instead set aside their land for wildlife preservation . Cattle farming is TERRIBLE for the wildlife , it necessitate demolish born flora , thereby ruin habitat , and necessitates the kill of predators . It also does n’t protect the wildlife from poaching . That ’s a complete storm for lions and other big , life-threatening critters ; it ’s why they ’d all be dead if there was n’t a value attached to their psyche .
So , because of hunting , you have secret plan ranches instead of cattle farm . In them , habitat is fostered and care specifically to be wildlife friendly . The lions are protected from poacher and dangerous wildlife / human encounters are forestall . Proper direction of the populations creates a sustainable , grow imagination from which a few prime lion can be culled , result in a net lucre . In South Africa , private game ranches now cover an surface area adequate to the nation ’s national parks .
Where those profits go is irrelevant to this particular conversation we ’re having . The take off is that lion hunting is a profitable industry that increases the populations of social lion and other large animals .

The big evils that shrink wildlife populations more than conservation efforts like managed hunting can cancel are home ground loss and poaching . Both are thing address by the for - profit industriousness as I ’ve explain above , but they ’re so bad that animate being universe are still falling .
It should also be noted that for - net income game reserves are capable to reach their benefits in land that do n’t have tourism — plaza like Chad or the Central African Republic — and as money earners owned by plenteous , hefty dudes , are better equipped to survive the political turbulence and corruption that are so common across the 53 dissimilar countries that subsist in sub - Saharan Africa .
As an animal lover , I can understand the sentiments that so often obscure this word . But if we subdue that conversation simply to cause and effect , I ’m certain you could see why hunting benefit Leo and other African game animals . I could n’t imagine killing a lion , but it ’s more important to me that social lion cover existing than it is to project sound judgment on the people who yield for Leo hunts . I ’ve been outspoken about this issue for that reasonableness , I see it as my duty as an animal lover to address for their benefit .

Here ’s some further meter reading on the outlet , from sources other than myself :
http://conservationmagazine.org/2014/01/can-tr …
http://www.nytimes.com/2025-03-09/wor …

http://www.radiolab.org/story/rhino-hu …
http://www.nytimes.com/2025-05-12/opi …
http://www.fishwildlife.org/files/Wildlife …

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/20 …
ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/aj114e/aj114e09.pdf
From here on out , I will respond to questions about this theme by train mass to this mail . You should feel free to do the same .

You ’ll find all of our hunting - associate contenthere .
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