More Great White Hunters

I received a lot of reads awhile back on my posts about great white hunters; folks with too much money on their hands shooting lions on “safari” game ranches.  Most if not all of the lions were hand raised, used to being around humans and were so accustomed to their surroundings they practically posed for pictures.

The Essence of Capitalism – Part II

But hey – there is money to be made. When a “hunter” spends $40,000 or $50,000 on a “safari” he expects a trophy kill.  And of course he gets one.     No need to take chances going on a hunt, dropping all that cash and coming home empty handed.  There aren’t enough lions out there in the “wild” anymore, but you are guaranteed one if you go to a safari ranch; tens of thousands of acres stocked with “wild” lions, breed specifically to be killed.

Shoot “canned” lions in South Africa where they are bred in fenced areas – the “hunter” is guaranteed a trophy at a much lower cost.

Any “canned” lion hunter is guaranteed success, as every lion available to be bought is assigned to a particular client. There is no hunting season. The hunting operators generally “demand” a seven to ten-day safari, and the “hunter” might not be provided with the lion to shoot until some days have passed. The first few days are spent “searching” for the lion by the gullible client on the larger game ranches, but when the lion is set out in the right area, the client is taken straight there. Lions might have only been transported the evening before, and are generally provided with a bait to keep them fixed in a particular spot. As these are lions very used to humans, clients can generally walk right up to their target to take an “easy” shot.

So last week we had two more instances of great white hunters bring home their trophies; not lions this time.

One young woman killed a giraffe -a harmless fukkin giraffe. Then she posed with it.

Posing with her dead giraffe she just killed, she describes it as “a feeling I will never forget.”

Now what is that feeling she will never forget that so thrilled her in killing a harmless leaf munching vegetarian?  Shooting a hand raised lion is ertainly more dangerous than a vegetarian giraffe so it can’t be the feeling of danger. Any ten-year old with a police special .38 revolver can kill a giraffe.

No. It was simply the killing of something innocently staring at her while she pulled the trigger.

After she proudly posted the pictures on her Facebook page she got a lot of unwelcome flak.

“Wow, you killed a giraffe, an animal that would wouldn’t hurt a fly. No words for how disgusting you are,” one commenter wrote about her killing the giraffe.

Her response?

“To me it’s not just killing an animal, it’s the hunt.”

“Everybody just thinks we’re cold-hearted killers, and it’s not that. There is a connection with the animal, and just because we hunt them doesn’t mean we don’t have a respect for them,” she explained.

The “hunt” as she calls it involves paying for 6 or 7 days on “safari” around a ranch; the “guides” know exactly where the animals are and eventually take the “hunter” to them after wandering around for a few days. The “wild” animals are so used to the presence of humans you can practically walk up to them and shoot them at close range. This way you don’t miss if you are a lousy shot.

She may think there is something spiritual or adventurous about it but it is nothing of the sort. It is the warm feeling she gets between her legs when she pulls the trigger.

But one need not go “big game” hunting in South Africa to find killers. We had a nice incident right here at home -well in Canada. A young man in his camouflage duds killed a bear with a 7 foot spear.   He baited an area which attracted the bear and waited until he could spear it.

The bear ran after being wounded and our “hunter” celebrated for his Youtube video.

He didn’t bother tracking the bear to ensure it was dead. He came back the next day and found the carcass. It might have taken hours for the bear to die for this manly man’s video.

Two souls completely lacking in empathy getting their orgasmic jollies off exhibiting cruelty.

It’s bad enough that rhinos are killed because Asians believe the horn when powdered and drank will give you a boner when you can’t get it up anymore.  We kill elephants to make small trinkets with the ivory for the wealthy.  Poachers are killing giraffes for the tail; carrying the tail is considered a status symbol in some communities.

And we kill lions and giraffes and bears for the “sport.”

.

Slaughter the rhino
so a foolish old man
can enhance his virility;
the cocktail of millionaires

Oh no child
there aren’t any more of those;
now you can see them only on History
been none of those since the 21st century

Forests?
Well down at the tip of the botanical garden
all fenced off
you can see a small one

used to go on forever
uncharted, stretching far as the eye could see
surrounded by itself, holding us
‘cause being there felt so good

not that I know ‘cause I’ve never seen one
Now it’s used only for honeymoons
where young couples can screw
in the illusion of paradise

And the sky used to be clear
and blue; uncontaminated
like the oceans
once teeming with fish and birds;

No child;
there are no more rhinos or tigers
only stuffed or on line
the last two elephants in the Cape Town zoo

And I thought of Sol 
dying in his euthanasia chamber
in the hallucinated city, tears in his eyes
listening to the music, watching the screen.

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