Cecil The Lion RIP

kylith wrote: »

I don't think it was wild meat he was talking about as much as it was predator meat. Predators are, by definition, dangerous animals but apart from that they're not as good eating as herbivores are and the liver can contain toxic amounts of vitamin A.

Very Bored wrote: »

Thanks Kylith. Does that apply to certain categories of predator only though such as big cats? For example, many natural predators are eaten in various places around the world, crocodile, shark and dog to name three.

Very Bored wrote: »

@Wibbs Slightly ot but what you said caught my interest. Why does wild meat make for a poor or even dangerous meal? In my ignorance I would have assumed meat would have been the same whether wild or farmed, after all its the same species.

murpho999 wrote: »

What are you on about?

Also, can you show me one incident of an animal going around killing people just for fun?

Samaris wrote: »

There's two aspects here, wild meat/bushmeat and the animal it comes from. In terms of wild meat, I wouldn't have an issue with it for people who have grown up with it, and whose parents/ancestors have been eating it as well. For us though, we probably don't have the same defenses against common sicknesses that can be picked up from it, as we've been sanitizing our meat-eating processes to the point where we have probably lost our natural defense.

In terms of the animal it comes from, someone did touch on the vitamin deficiencies from eating the meat of carnivores, and also it tends to be just far less pleasant to eat. Stringy, tough, and generally doesn't taste very nice.

Regarding the Maasai killing lions, would you believe that I don't actually care too much about that as long as they're not killing them wholesale. The Maasai are part of the ecosystem, and they and the lions have, overall, found a balance to co-exist in. Now, at -this- stage, it may be time to stop it as the balance has been lost through lack of habitat, poaching and hunting over the last few generations.

Mind you, I also would have a certain difficulty in blaming people who live there for considering lions to be a bloody nuisance that occasionally kill people and to want to suggest to foreigners hand-wringing over it that they come and live with lions for a bit and then see if they prefer to protect their village or a great big vicious cat. All that aside though, I am a conservationist.


Well nothing creditable there just because it's the internet and I'd say there are other reasons behind them such as territorial issues or feelings of being threatened etc

I can give you several!

Gustave the crocodile - a 66-year old monster of a lizard, weighing about 2,000lb and over about 20ft in length (compared to 14-15 for most). Likes killing. Really likes killing. Has been seen to attack a group of humans, lay waste around him and then wander off, not bothering to eat them. The most he seems to eat is a few chunks of flesh. He's believed to have killed over 300 people, and is still active and chomping in Burundi. His last known kill was in 2008, when he grabbed a fisherman, dragged him to the water and drowned him, before abandoning the body. Just because lol, apparently.

The Tsavo man-eaters - these were a pair of maneless male lions that got a taste for flesh on the slave trails, where dying slaves were abandoned. The lions ate the bodies and found them quite tasty. They then started nomming on the workers for the Kenya-Uganda railway bridge. While exact figures are unclear, the generally accepted tally is about 135, not all of whom were eaten, suggesting that the lions were also killing for unknown reasons.

The Abadare Forest bull - a large male elephant that hated humans enough to attack villages (never the same one twice) over a period of months. Here's a quote from one of the men hunting it.
"Two natives were returning to their village one evening when they saw a great black mass standing motionless in the shadows. The men shouted to scare the thing away. At once the mass left the shadows and charged them at fearful speed ... They heard the man's screams as the elephant caught him. The great brute put one foot on his victim, and pulled him to pieces with his trunk. Then he stamped the body into the ground and went away." - J.A. Hunter

In the elephant's defence, when it was finally brought down, it was found he had a bullet wedged into the nerve centre of one of his tusks, so he had some reason for brutal vengeance on humanity.

Another elephant, nicknamed Osama Bin Laden, killed 27 people, 14 of them in a six-month period for reasons still not really understood. Obviously, he wasn't eating them either! He'd just run them down, gore or trample them to death and wander off again.

The Mysore sloth bear - in 1957, it ripped the faces off something like three dozen people in quick attacks. Some survived, but most died. Of all its kills, only three of them were even partially eaten. Most just had the faces ripped off and were then left.


There's a whole bunch of them, but I think I'll leave it at that so a) you can sleep at night and b) my post doesn't take up the entire page..

Wibbs wrote: »

One Yelper found this out:

"would you wanna be in this man's chair?!
"According to a corrective action agreement he reached with the board, Palmer's insurer paid $127,500 to a former employee and patient who accused him of ongoing sexual harassment. The woman claimed he made unwelcome comments about and physical contact with her breasts, buttocks and genitals."
so, not only does he kill defenseless animals in the most cowardly way possible but he also preys on his patients and employees. he is the absolute worst of the worst!"

Ouch.

Samaris wrote: »

The Maasai are part of the ecosystem, and they and the lions have, overall, found a balance to co-exist in. Now, at -this- stage, it may be time to stop it as the balance has been lost through lack of habitat, poaching and hunting over the last few generations.