So, first of all, there is a lot about this that I don't understand that you might understand better than I do. I know almost nothing about the relationship between hunting and conservation in Africa. I have read that the lion population has been decimated in the last 100 years largely because of hunting. So, at least on the surface, that doesn't seem like good conservation.

Second, even as someone who eats meat and who hunts I have a moral problem with what happened (And to some degree big game hunting in general). My basic understanding of the hunting that goes on in the United States is that we have eliminated many of the natural predators for game animals. So the population of these game animals grows too large and can cause problems. In some cases animals run out of food and starve. We solve this problem by permitting hunting and regulating the number of permits that are issued each year based on the current population. Hunters feed their families with the animals they kill. Much of this process is driven by necessity.

So to address this specific incident... If this had been in the United States and he had lured a bear out of a National Park and shot it without a permit I would be pretty mad too. He DID do something like this and is a felon because of it. In Africa he again killed a protected animal in spite of the law. I don't believe that he didn't know what he was doing. They dragged an animal carcass behind a car in order to lure the lion out of a preserve. That's obviously shady. Based on this and his criminal history it's not a stretch to believe that he didn't want to kill A lion but he wanted to kill THIS lion. At the very least SOMEBODY in that party knew who that lion was.

Finally the concept of big game hunting doesn't sit well with me. Maybe a metaphor will help me explain how I feel about it. I was in the military. One of my drill instructors was a Marine who had done several tours in Iraq. He had also recently had a new baby. So one day this guy is talking to the class and yell, "Do you know where I wish I was right now?!" Somebody responded, "At home with your new baby sir?" And he replied, "@$% no! I wish I were back in Iraq ..." I'll spare you the details but he described in graphic detail how he wanted to be back in Iraq killing people. For him there was real joy in killing insurgents. It made me sick and for much the same reason. I believe that sometimes war is necessary but find no joy in killing people. I also believe that hunting is necessary. I just can't separate the necessity from the taking of life. Big game hunting does that. This man kills for fun. He kills for the pleasure he finds in killing something. My entire family hunts. I grew up with a freezer full of deer, elk, and antelope. But as part of this process I was taught the importance of respecting the environment, respecting the animals, eating what you kill. You can disagree but I think it's important to link these two.

Incidentally, I ALSO have a problem with the contents of the Planned Parenthood videos. Even if I didn't though, as my grandmother always said, "Two wrongs don't make a right." Just because what's going on at Planned Parenthood is wrong doesn't mean that what this guy did is right.