Are you angry about the American woman who hunted and shot a lion in South Africa? The story is big news. The woman is an American TV presenter of a game hunting show Winchester’s Deadly Passion. On the television show she hunts bears and deer etc.. Her name is Melissa Bachman. She shares her passion for shooting wild animals with other Americans such as Sarah Palin and Eva Longoria, an actress.
She proudly declared on her Twitter feed:
“Incredible day in South Africa! Stalked inside 60 yards on this beautiful male lion…what a hunt!”
So, she got within 60 yards of a male, African lion in the Maroi Conservancy in South Africa and shot him dead. She is clearly very proud of that.
View Maroi Conservancy and Farming in a larger map
Melissa did nothing illegal. The South African government allows regulated lion hunting. Canned lion hunts are also allowed. These are lions in captivity bred to be shot. At one time it was banned but now reinstated. Canned lion hunting is an ego trip for hunters with pots of money and poor eyesight.
Melissa forgets that the lion is considered Vulnerable by the Red List and its population has declined from about 400,000 in the 1950s to around 30,000 in Africa in 1996. The decline is due to increased human activity destroying habitat. The lion’s habitat is 25% of what it was.
Set against the miserable background of the gradual, inexorable extinction of the lion in the wild, it seems to me to be rather selfish of Melissa to pay big bucks for the visceral pleasure of shooting such a magnificent and precious animal, one of the world’s most popular. I guess the rarer they become the keener hunters are to shoot one.
Melissa also does not recognise the fact that 4,062 lions have been shot by sport hunters between 2005 and 2011 in Africa. I cannot see how sport hunting of lions is allowed in these quantities under these circumstances.
Melissa has been described as a “heartless trophy hunter”. She can take the lion carcass home if she wishes and have it stuffed. She probably will.
A while ago, I complained that online petitions were ineffective. However, I may be proved wrong or things are changing. The internet carries more weight nowadays. There is a petition on change.org for Melissa to be banned from South Africa. Her selfish, thoughtless behavior in shooting this magnificent creature is described as an “absolute contradiction” to the South African culture of conservation.
I would not be so sure that South Africa is that concerned with conservation if they authorise sport hunting of one of their most precious wildlife assets. This is more about money than conservation and money always overrules conservation and don’t be fooled into thinking that shooting lions helps in conservation.
Terrible, disgusting and totally ignorant. If I killed a Lion it would be something to be totally ashamed of for the rest of my life, wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
Nor me!
But we and the others who are disgusted about this too are compassionate caring human beings who would never ever take an animal’s life for our own pleasure let alone pose with the murdered creature and brag about it.
I deleted this idiot comment – Michael (Admin). DaleB is one of Woodsman’s aliases.
Message: Woody just p*ss off and don’t return. You are so damn tiresome and totally in denial of your psychosis.
I wouldn’t be able to pull the trigger. The whole concept is completely alien to me. There is something very backward and ignorant about sport hunting. You only have to look at the people.
One lion is nothing compared to the thousands and thousands that are slowly suffering to death and dying around the world from feline specific diseases that are being spread everywhere by free-roaming house-cats. At least one that is shot dies quickly and humanely, not true of one that dies from one of the many diseases that your house-cats spread to it and all its offspring.
thenational D0T ae SLASH news/uae-news/big-cat-owners-warned-to-keep-them-acres-away-from-feral-strays
rapidcityjournal D0T com SLASH sports/local/feral-cats-pose-threat-to-birds-lions/article_8ec451c9-4b03-55a3-baa7-71ac577905cb.html
People who let house-cats roam free are torturing thousands of native cats to death.
Which way is your finger pointing now?
Which diseases carried by the domestic cat and transmitted by the domestic cat are transmitted to African lions and which then kills them? And how many lions die as a result? Please supply verifiable details.
It doesn’t matter what we write about cats Woody you play the same old record of getting at domestic cat lovers and it’s very boring and you waste your time because no one gives a damn what you think.You have no proof of any of your rantings you are just a thick troll who can’t think for himself.
Which way is YOUR finger pointing I wonder probably desperately at the keyboard searching for another cat article to troll on.
GET A LIFE for God’s sake.
Rose, “twisted thinking” isn’t worth responding to.
I just want to let him rant his same old canned stuff and get on without him.
Dee, I deleted his comment when I realised it was him. Sorry I was slow. He is genuinely crazy. We know the problems with the domestic cat. We are not in denial. We are realists. But he exaggerates massively and is a died in the wool cat hater.
Thanks, Michael.
But, unless he’s abusive, I think we are all just ignoring him.
He can rant all he wants. I don’t care. I’m not affected by it anymore. He’s a waste of time and can never support his statements.
I read his first sentence, know it’s him/her, and don’t read any more. Same old, same old…
The sad part is that I don’t mind an opposing opinion and love a good debate; but, his thought pattern is irrational.
Thanks Dee. I don’t want anyone to be upset by him. If he was more polite and presented a more balanced viewpoint I would be happy to accept counter arguments and even criticism. Constructive criticism is good. I welcome it but this stuff is just hopeless biased rubbish.
I should ignore him too but he gives such twisted views I feel I have to try to put that right for any visitors who don’t know he’s a cat hating troll because his comments are so dangerously biased and wrong.
I know it’s hard, Rose. Michael and several of us challenged him to provide support for his statements. He can never do that. He’s a waste of time and energy.
It is hard Dee when he writes such rubbish and Rose is right, he’s dangerous.
I can’t see what pleasure he gets out of it either, can you? His insides must be bubbling with acid from his bitterness.
You are so right, Ruth AKA. I think he is very dangerous.
When Michael said that he wanted to meet with him, I freaked.
I don’t think any of us would want that to happen without being enmass with him.
This is an idiot sociopath with a gun!
Yes Dee, Michael is a very brave and genuine man and Woody just a snivelling coward but also a dangerous sociopath who we all know have not a shred of feeling for anyone but themselves and always think they are right even when so obviously wrong.
People like that should be locked up and the key thrown away for good!
Yes I’m furious that this woman actually described the lion as beautiful and still shot him, why would she want to destroy something that she thinks is beautiful? What sort of people actually admire this murderess? Do men find woman who kill for pleasure attractive? It’s revolting, it’s cruel and there is nothing sporting about it at all. I don’t mind saying it here and now I HATE people who hunt and kill for pleasure and I would love to physically attack this jumped up hag with her gun and her whitened teeth and boobs sticking out so proudly and her flaming necklace so carefully in place and black both of her eyes. And then I’d like to rub her face in the excreta that the lion probably did in the pain and trauma of the moment of death. Now where is that petition?
I’m signing!
I for one find it appalling .I’m sure I’ll catch some flack for this next remark , but so be it. I was raised eating wild game , by that I mean thee were times with so many mouths to feed if my Daddy didn’t get a deer there would be no meat for a very long time . Every part of that deer was used . The meat , the hide , the antlers and even the hooves(they went to a family friend ). Would I hunt to feed my family ,YES. Would I stalk down a majestic beast w/ a high powered rifle as sport? HELL NO! I see no SPORT in using a gun against a ,basically ,unarmed animal . The true sport as far as I’m concerned , would be to hunt the animal using only the weapons God gave you! I.E. your teeth , your (nails) claws and your wits . Because it sure as heck doesn’t take WITS to ambush and stalk an animal who has only those things to fight back or HUNT YOU! America is at it’s poorest right now and many families are going hungry . Taking ONLY what you need from the land , what God provided , and thinning the herd , to me is acceptable . Not for sport , not for the huge trophy head , not to just be able to say you did it! I do apologize if my view on this offends of upsets anyone.Yet,again…it is my opinion , and after all just that.
Good comment, Jan.
I will never understand how hunting can be seen as a sport.
I’m not a huge sports fan, but I have some understanding of what it entails:
The competitors are always WILLING participants. And, they have some semblence of equality, ie. you can’t have a race car and expect me to compete with a tricycle. There should be no bold advantages.
I suggest that, if Melissa wants to “play games” with the King of the Jungle that she grow her nails, pack on some hefty weight, and get into a closed arena with him.
Exactly! I remember years ago my father ,who was a gun smith, refusing to make loads of Ammo for a client as the man wanted loads to hunt ELEPHANT and RHINO! My father refused and then told the man to take his business from then on elsewhere. I mean REALLY?Just so stupid…”Geez dear let’s go get our guns and sneak up on one of the most majestic creatures God ever created and shot it…because we can!!”ARGG… Do you think they would eat the meat? Just find all this “Big game” hunting very misnamed! They should call it “Idiots with guns”.And where do they get the game part? I do agree.This woman needs to hunt one on one with the animals she is hunting!!!
Idiots with guns” would be a much better name for those losers who like to kill things. I would support a contest between any unarmed hunter and a hungry Lion. Humans are a pretty depraved lot. I will never understand wanting to kill something unless it is in self defense.
I know. I have never understood why people today still like to shoot animals and kill them for the fun of it. I don’t see any fun in it. I see the opposite. For some peculiar reason sport hunters have retained the personality of early stone age man. There is no place in the world for sport hunting but it is still a 10 billion dollar activity in the US (17 million typical Americans love it).
Yes I am angry, in fact I am stotting at this callous excuse for a woman killing that beautiful lion, posing with it and her blasted weapon of destruction and boasting about her conquest.
She may think she is pretty and clever but she is ugly inside and that shows on her smirking face.
The lion is far more beautiful than her, even dead!
I hate all hunters with a passion and as much as I am usually a peaceful person I feel that I could happily see those murderers themselves shot in cold blood. I rejoice when a hunter shoots him/herself or another hunter by mistake! I love Karma!
Why do they have to take life to make them happy?
She should be shot and stuffed and put on a wall for all to see as an example of something very bad.
Pretty simple really.
And she thinks it’s beautiful – what f****** a**h*** – and screw the people who arrange all of this too. I’m sure they all have crappy problems in their personal lives and blame it on everything but themselves. That’s how karma works.
We should start hunting the hunters. That’s make them very edgy wouldn’t it. God I would laugh until kingdom come to see that lady running for her life with bullets flying at her. Taste of her own stupid medicine.
How I agree with you Marc!
Be even funnier if the lion had the gun!!!!
Yes it darn well would. I’d love to go out there and stalk those horrid people and scare the living daylights out of them.
I’d be with you there Marc a taste of their own poison is what anyone who kills animals for sport needs.
There is no no no need to kill animals at all these days there is no need to eat them we don’t need to eat dead flesh to survive.
God help this world with all the murderers in many guises who inhabit it.
I would gladly hunt her and other hunters. That would cut the amount of hunters down by about 99.9 percent. They would run and hide. Any IDIOT can pull a trigger and many do.