Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting IMHO Lion trophy photos are a big downer

I am not a prude about killing and eating animals and my wife looks great in her fur coat. I enjoy BBQ regularly and nothing beats sitting down to a meal of striped bass caught by you and your kids that morning. I firmly believe that God put animals in His world to serve man.

And altough I do hunt, I understand the allure and think that deer hunting is great for those that enjoy it.

On the other hand, viewing some photos of hunters with their lion trophies made me sad.

Two questions:

1) Is there a significant fraction of enthusiastic deer hunters who would not hunt lion even if given the opportunity?

2) Is lion hunting similar to the New Jersey bear hunt, which does not bother me. Too many of those big felines and they need to be thinned?

What lions are you talking about? African or Mountain?

If you ever have an encounter with one that gives you the stink eye, you'll understand why our forefathers killed them on sight.
The only good cat is a dead cat...

Think it was lying africans..

Guess I'm just trying to figure out why you posed this question in the deer hunting section. The African or General Hunting forums might get you more well rounded answers.


maddog

African

I posted here because I wanted to know if a fair number of deer hunters shared my aversion to trophy photos of African lions

I'd hunt either type of lion if given the chance and from what I have heard, chasing a pack of hounds around snow packed mountains does not equal a no brainer hunt. They kill hundreds of thousands of deer every year in Colorado and they are anything but rare.

Stack 'em up.

I can respect another opinion but I just don't get why the question is being asked in a Deer Hunting forum or why being asked at all. Part of the question also seems to border on high fence hunts. To each his own, if one cares to shoot a lion, good for him. Its not my cup of tea and doubt I would have the $10-$20k pocket change to do so.

Unless I miss my guess pretty bad I doubt there are very many of us deer hunters who would ever have the chance at an African lion finances being what they are.

However if they get started around here and one happens to wander into my oat patch I'd most probably shoot the fool out of it. Might take a picture too.

very odd question indeed

As long as everything was done legally ... why not?

Ahh, I hate to disillusion anybody, but african lion hunts[excluding canned RSA hunts] START around $35,000 and go upwards toward $90,000+ all in. That sure separates the men from the boys, financially.

Looking at trophy lion kill pics doesn't bother me one iota. If it wasn't for hunters that CAN afford to hunt lions, the African lion population would be far worse off, than it is. A dollar value has to be placed on a specie, in Africa, so that it will encourage conservation of said specie. Without that, the specie would be doomed to extinction due to poaching, or in the case of predators, conflicts with human/livestock. Wild remote Africa is still there, but continues to shrink because of human encroachment.


maddog

Lion trophy pics are disgusting. How could anyone shoot a poor wittle puddycat?



From L: Mallebung, me, Ron, the old man, Junior.

Regardless of your feelings, if nobody was willing to pay big-bucks for lion hunts, there would be no lions left.

Without hunters, lions are vermin. They used to shoot them on-sight all over Africa. Do you think it would be different today with more population and less wilderness area?

Easily. See Lion, aim gun, pull trigger. Can't get much simpler than that!

My checkbook is not that large, but I would hunt them in a heartbeat otherwise!

I suspected that the lion hunts were part of wildlife management, but the photos of the dead lions still bum me out.

[quote=Bushmaster1313

I suspected that the lion hunts were part of wildlife management, but the photos of the dead lions still bum me out. [/quote]

No offense intended; Your 'handle' here seems misplaced IF trophy pics of one of Africa's Big 5 bothers you.

To answer your ? YES, I do hunt mtn lion and I WOULD hunt Lion in Africa if I were able to.

We have a cougar that has been SEEN by myself and at least 1 other hunter on the lease I hunt. I ALMOST got a shot at it last yr BUT... I have a few pics I took a took a few yrs. back where a cougar chased a critter into a den tree. It had pawed the dirt away all around the tree and chewed & or clawed the tree all around the entrance hole.

Sounds like a personal problem to me. You are in the wrong place for that attitude. If photos of legally hunted and killed animals bother you don't look at them.

I'd kill a lion in a heartbeat be it African or American.......








And take lots of pics...