Where do you stand on the killing of Cecil the Lion?

[PJ]

Hunting of lions and any other threatened species should be illegal obviously, and the methods in which Cecil was hunted were especially terrible. The Cat Lives Matter hashtag is terrible and in very poor taste though. Linking this to ISIS or abortion sounds like a useless strawman.

I don't give a sh!t

Given that the hunter was a rich asshole illegally hunting because he could get away with it, I figured you would be opposed to it.

[PJ]

I stand on whatever general principle there is to the effect that, if you are overly concerned about this kind of thing, that is clear indication that you have things very good in your life. 

Because empathy for another living being is only for the extremely well-off?

As an aside, let me point out that most of the posters here live in areas where the apex predators have been eliminated and would be opposed to their reintroduction. Despite being native to the Carolinas, I can't see either the wolf or the panther ever being anything but sport team mascots here.

Particularly poor strawman.

[PJ]

To all arguing "It was only one lion!" the incident is merely representative of a larger problem. Cecil's death spurred the usually terrible Zimbabwean government to ban hunting of several big game species.

and I'm horrified at how the social media lynch mob has descended upon this fellow

Yeah, clearly he's the real victim here.

I mean, if he ends up getting beaten up or killed as a result of all this, yes, he kind of would be, wouldn't he? Human lives obviously outweigh those of wild animals, unless you're one of the OUTRAGED PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET calling for blood right now. What's utterly f**ked about this whole episode is how quick people are to jump on the lynch mob bandwagon for an animal, but turn a blind eye as black men in this country keep getting killed by police, day after day.

How exactly are the two mutually exclusive? I'm not arguing in favor of the lynch mob mentality on social media, but outrage and disgust over the act of luring a threatened species out of protected wilderness and wounding and killing it over a period of two days is certainly understandable. Acts such as this ought to be prevented because it causes unjust suffering and death on the part of the animal all for pleasure; not because "humans and wild animals are equal" or whatever nonsense you think the animal rights movement is peddling. I'm not sure you've been paying attention to police brutality if you think social media has been ignoring police brutality. Ever heard of #BlackLivesMatter? Social media outrage has been directed at incidences of police brutality and racial profiling, as it should be. In fact, that outrage has been one of the leading factors in exposing police brutality and raising awareness of racial issues in recent years.