There’s been a worldwide outcry about the unjust killing of Cecil the lion with hundreds
of thousands protesting this horrific act. But are the violent actions of Walter Palmer,
the American dentist who killed this majestic creature, really any different or worse than
the daily actions of the vast majority of the world’s population? It’s time for
the terribly unlikely vegan animal activist’s defense of Cecil’s the lion’s killer.
Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. So I’ve gotten
a lot of requests to address the story of Cecil the lion. And as I said about the Yulin dog
festival in June: what, exactly, is the fuss all about? Now before you leave an enraged
comment on how heartless I am, stay with me through this thought process. I’ve chosen
again to not have any graphic footage in this video in hopes that you’ll be more willing
to listen. But if you do not believe what I am saying is true, please contact me through
my website at BiteSizeVegan.com, and I can supply videos of the very realities I’ll
be describing. I am happy to do so.
I may be showing some images and videos that are upsetting to you and sad, but nothing
that is overtly graphic.
Also, this video is not to invalidate the very appropriate reaction of being enraged
by the horrific killing of a living being. In fact my goal is the very opposite of that.
In situations like this where mass global outrage is running high, it’s important
for us to collectively look at the continuity of our reactions to our actions. There’s
a saying which holds a good deal of truth that the things we find most objectionable
in others are things we do not accept about ourselves, and while this isn’t always 100%
true, I think in this situation it holds a great deal of validity.
As I did with the Yulin video, I’m going to look at the major objections surrounding
Cecil’s unjust killing and compare those to the everyday actions of the majority of
the global population and see if we can tease out some of the discontinuities. This is a bit
longer of a video, but I want to be as thorough as possible, as there are many aspects to this issue.
We’re going to focus on the cruel manner in which Cecil was killed, the fact that he
was a park favorite, the fact that he was meant to be a protected animal for ongoing
conservation efforts, and the repercussions of his death to his remaining pride.
Let’s start with the manner in which Cecil was killed. Palmer reportedly paid $50,000
American dollars to get to kill a lion. Cecil, who was rather accustomed to humans since
being a part of a study for so long, was rather easily lured out of his area so that Palmer
could kill him.
Palmer then shot Cecil with a crossbow wounding him but not killing him and then tracked him the
next 40 hours before he or another of his team shot Cecil with a rifle. Cecil was then
beheaded and skinned for a trophy of the kill.
Now so much of this is objectionable. The outrageous money paid for the “privilege”
of killing Cecil, the exploitation of his trusting nature, the prolonged suffering he
experienced over those 40 hours, and the ultimate desecration of his carcass.
Well, let’s compare this to the everyday habits of the majority of the worlds population.
Those of us- and I’m speaking from the collective “we” or “us” as humanity, though I
myself am a vegan- those of us who eat animals actually pay fractions of what Palmer did
for our meals to be killed, which may even be a greater insult to have your life worth
a couple of dollars or 99 cents on the value menu.
Our meals, or let’s be honest, our victims are possibly even more trusting of humans
than Cecil as they’ve been bred and raised in complete captivity. Our victims don’t
just suffer for 40 hours but for years in some cases, living in daily horrific conditions,
being overcome with debilitating illnesses and disease, suffering broken limbs from growing
so unnaturally fast in order to produce more meat for our meals, live with open infected
sores, suffer with lameness, blindness, total confinement, sores from cages, being driven
to cannibalism and madness from intolerable conditions, and never even seeing the light
of day. They are often fully conscious when their throats are slit or they’re thrown
into electrified baths of water. Some may even make it to dismemberment and die piece by
piece. And this is NOT just in factory farms. Where do you think the nice quite family farms
send their animals to be slaughtered?
Cecil had many years of being outdoors, being allowed to live his life safe and protected.
Strangely this is the argument many people give when they say that hunting is better than
factory farming. Yet now they are using the opposite argument to condemn Palmer.
Cecil suffered for 40 hours. Chickens, who we kill by the billions, only get to live an average
of 42 days when they are killed at 6 weeks old. And those entire six weeks are beyond torturous.
In regards to the rather cowardice approach of killing a lion so accustomed to humans,
those of us who eat animals and their byproducts don’t even look our victims in the face.
We pay other people to breed, enslave, torture, and murder them so we can have the nice package,
the “trophy” that comes out on the other side and save ourselves the difficulty of
feeling complicit in their deaths. So in essence, whose approach is more cowardly?
And as to the desecration of his carcass, the bodies of the victims of our food industry
are treated with no more reverence, possibly even less. They are no more than commodities,
kicked, beaten, poked, prodded, punched, burned, cut, puncture, branded, and utterly destroyed
and disregarded. They are beyond uncared for and far from treasured.
A final point in the manner in which Cecil was killed is how totally unnecessary it was.
No one needs to kill a lion. Well, no human needs to kill animals for food either.
We actually benefit greatly from not doing so in our health, the environment, and with feeding
the hungry of the world. The only reason to eat animals is taste preference, which is
just as frivolous as Palmer’s desire to kill a lion and both boil down to the childish
impulse of “but I wanna.” Now let’s look at the fact that Cecil was
a park favorite. As I said in the Yulin video, many people object to the killing of dogs
as a large number of them were said to be family pets. They had names, just like Cecil,
and were loved, just like Cecil. Well, our victims may not have names we know, but they
certainly have names and identities within their own species. We may not love them and
visit them and take photos, mostly because we don’t want to see what they’re experiencing,
but it doesn’t make their suffering any less valid or any less horrific or any less real.
It’s the Babe the pig, Finding Nemo, and Bambi phenomenon. Give an animal a name and
a story and we want to root for them. Keep them nameless and anonymous and we could care less.
Brent Stapelkamp, a field researcher with Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation
Research Unit, who knew Cecil perhaps better than anyone else said "Cecil was the ultimate
lion, he was everything that a lion represents to us as humans: large, powerful, but regal
at the same time." Strange that we don’t have this reverence for other animals. Cows,
bulls in particular, are incredibly large, powerful and regal. But while Cecil is fit
for our reverence, cows are fit for our burgers, shoes, and handbags.
Now in regards to Cecil being protected for a conservation study, we tend to always value
certain species over others. Save the whales, stop the Japanese from killing dolphins, express
horror and disgust at the Yulin consumption of dogs, but screw the cows, chickens and
pigs, unless you’re in India then revere the cows and don’t eat pigs.
It’s all arbitrary.
Now to the repercussions for Cecil’s remaining pride. Due to the social structure of a lion's
pride, it’s possible that Cecil’s death will result in the deaths of his cubs and
brothers. Well, the systematic killing of animals that the majority of us participate in many
times a day certainly jeopardizes families. Our victims usually never get to be with their
families, who are always, and I mean always, sentenced to just as horrific of a life and death.
Dairy for example, separates mothers and babies, and sends those babies to confinement and slaughter.
The carcass on plates or the fluid in our glass has caused untold more suffering, death,
and familial heartbreak than Palmer’s actions in this instance ever could.
Now a final few notes. Zimbabwe’s environmental minister stated in regards to Cecil’s death,
"This must be condemned in the strongest possible terms by all genuine, animal-loving conservationists
who believe in sustainable utilization of natural resources." If you missed my video
on Everything Wrong with Environmentalism, you may not know that animal agriculture is
actually one of the leading causes of global species extinction, far more pervasive than poaching.
And for those who say “well our food animals are raised to be eaten, Cecil wasn’t".
Again I will challenge that mentality. How does breeding, confining, abusing, and killing
an animal for food make it okay because that was our intention all along? Where exactly
is the logic in that? If I had a child and raised that child all the while my intention
was to kill it when it was three years old, how does my intention validate my action?
It certainly doesn’t make the death of the individual any more pleasant. Being raised
for the sole purpose of being killed and consumed also by default leads to a far more horrific
life because you’re never seen as anything valuable- you are a commodity as soon as you are born,
an object for consumption from day one.
Now if you made it all the way through this video, I would ask you to take a step back
from the emotional outrage and really take this opportunity to look at your own daily actions
and honestly see if there’s any discontinuity there.
Yes, the slaughter of Cecil is heartbreaking, and as a vegan I’m against the slaughter
of any animal, but it’s important to understand the sheer insanity of global outcry at the
death of one lion from the very mouths that moments before and moments after will be chewing
on the carcass of an animal who was just as sentient, just as if not more horrifically
murdered than Cecil, and without anyone there to mourn their loss, shame their killer, or
make a shrine to their memory.
I hope this video was helpful and informative. Again feel free to contact me through my website if you want
visual proof of some of what I described. If you found this video compelling and helpful,
please share it around to help others come to grips with the collective discontinuity
of our actions and give it a big thumbs up. If you want to help support Bite Size Vegan’s
educational efforts, please see the support links in the video description below, or click
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Now go live vegan, get honest with your actions, and I’ll see you soon.