Minnesota Wildlife: THIS MINNESOTAN HAS TO WONDER, WILL CECILE THE LIONS DEATH BE IN VEIN?

The other day when I heard about Cecile the lion being killed by an American in Africa my first thought was "another one." I didn't have all of the details about it, like the fact Cecile wasn't killed outright or that the hunt was illegal, all I knew is another beautiful creature was struck down. Later in the day though I started to see more and more articles pop up across the internet and as the information started coming out about the torture poor Cecile experienced and the history of the man who killed him I felt very angry but oddly nowhere near as pissed as I became when I started seeing the nationwide outrage and the ire of Minnesotans; demanding justice, planning a protest at the trophy hunter's business, calling for all hunters to be killed.

Why am I pissed about that? Here's why.

First, Cecile's death is absolutely tragic but not unique. What happened to Cecile happens every day and it doesn't just happen in far away places like Africa, it happens RIGHT HERE IN MINNESOTA!! I watched as people organized a protest of Cecile's killer and 800 people responded on Facebook saying they would attend. EIGHT HUNDRED PEOPLE! Whaaaaaaa???? I've been attending various events, protests, etc… related to animal rights since the 1990's and I've never seen 800 people at a protest related to protecting animals. In the past three years wolf advocates in Minnesota, Wisconsin & Michigan have been coming together to fight the slaughtering of the Great Lakes grey wolves and yet we were extremely lucky if 30 people showed up to protest wolf hunting and trapping. People might say "how do you know all those people ranting about Cecile aren't fighting for wildlife?" I know because if all of those people were physically attending protests and speaking to their representatives, writing letters to the legislature, trophy hunting wouldn't exist. Signing petitions and donating money only goes so far, people MUST call their local reps and be a nuisance by standing in front of the DNR, the governor's home, the capitol… to let them know that you care and you're not going away until they change things.

Sadly, I think Cecile is the flavor of the moment which means his death will likely be in vein. People are angry now much like they were upset about Rachel Dolezal pretending to be black, or Bill Cosby drugging and raping women… but it doesn't last long enough to matter. Next week it will be another story, another outrage and Cecile and other animals like him will likely be forgotten. That's the thing about the good old U.S.A, the land of hypocrites who are not accountable. Who will you see fighting to protect and save wildlife tomorrow? The same people we always see. After the dust settles the same faces will show up at the protest locations, the same volunteers will be handing out information at events. I hope I'm wrong, I truly hope. My being wrong about this would give me great joy but right now all I can think about is the wolf who was killed ILLEGALLY up near Duluth, Minnesota. The body was found early spring this year and the wolf had been killed by a snare, the snare was removed (though evidence remained) and its body dumped on someone's private property. Thrown away like a piece of trash. The owner of the property immediately contacted others to get the word out about this tragedy, Wolf Patrol picked up the story and offered a reward for information, Howling for Wolves posted about it on FB and Twitter, other groups shared the pictures and details across our vast social networks and yet no one batted an eye lash.

This wolf (seen below) isn't unique either. There are thousands just like it in the U.S. Cougars, bears, coyotes, raccoons, fox… tortured, illegally killed, used as trophy's. Many are killed just out of fear and hate. Do you know we have no bag limit on coyotes here in Minnesota? We can kill as many as we want, whenever we want. We also use traps which is a very barbaric practice. Many animals linger in traps for days, suffering just like Cecile. A snare trap, like the one that killed the wolf below, slowly strangles an animal to death. In addition to all of this our own federal and state wildlife services kill 1.5 million animals each year.

LIST OF ANIMALS KILLED BY WILDLIFE SERVICES IN 2013

So, if you REALLY care about what happened to Cecile, don't let his death be in vein. Write to your local reps, write letters to the editor of your city paper, attend protests, volunteer at events to share information with those that may not be aware. Of course donating money helps also but if money were the single answer to saving wildlife there wouldn't be any dead elephants right now.

I am going to conclude this blog post with this share. THE SCIENCE OF WHY YOU ARE SO UPSET ABOUT CECIL THE LION. That article ends with this:

"we don’t need to suppress our empathy to animals like Cecil, but rather “moderate our prejudices with understanding for the value of all species, for the long-term welfare of humanity and our planet.”

Please don't forget that.