Live and Let Live

Just watched the movie "Born Free," starring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers.

It's a beautiful story. I went online to look for more information about the story behind the movie, and found that the actors created a foundation for wild animals.

Came across very disturbing information on the foundation website. Have you ever heard of "canned hunting?" In South Africa, there are tourist places where, for a certain sum of money, you can shoot a caged animal and take it home as a trophy kill. The people who run these places actually hand-raise and bottle feed wild and exotic animals so that they are not afraid of humans. Then they put them in a cage, and guarantee the tourist a nice "trophy." In addition, these "hunters" are advised how to lame a lion by shooting it in the shoulder so no damage is done to the head. Some even break the lion's limbs so killing the maimed animal is easier on the operators of such places. What kind of sick subculture is this?

What kind of twisted thinking makes people pay for the mounted head of a dead animal? If the thought of a mounted human head disgusts us, why would any other animal's head be treated differently? Even if you don't have a moral issue with hunting, what part of a premeditated kill, where you have a gun, safety outside of a cage, and a victim who cannot and does not know to run, is glorious?

And what kind of people operate such places? How can you sleep at night, knowing that animals that you raised, who trusted you, were ultimately betrayed by you for money?

Live and let live. Is that too much to ask?

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