This is a personal tirade. Almost a rant. Sorry, but this man’s behavior makes me angry. He appears to have asked his wife (or a friend) to photograph him with his son as he holds the head of the cougar that he just shot dead on a hunting trip. A very pleasant (not) family portrait. I mean really how can anyone take a photo like this as if it is a pleasant scene of father and son by the Christmas tree?
And then he drives home with the poor cat tied to the back of his bloody (literally) Lamborghini. He is very proud of what he has done. Of teaching his son how to shot wildlife, in this case a beautiful puma. It is legal in America with restrictions in some states. What he has done is teach his son that it is okay to cause immense pain to a sentient being and take life in the pursuit of human pleasure which must be immoral. Disagree? Tell me please.
It also perpetuates the cruel sport of hunting of pumas in America. It is about attitude and being indoctrinated with the belief that this is good fun. Although there are some devout sport hunters in Europe, most Europeans find this sort of activity unacceptable at best and revolting at worst.
In America it is generally entirely acceptable, even commendable. He’s probably admired as a fine family man teaching his son the traditions of American life. His wife will be proud of him. She’ll probably brag about it. She takes a good photo although the one below is too dark.
Hell, he may even have the photo enlarged and framed for the living room to remind him of the good life. Yes, a good life if you have a distorted mentality of life and are human-centric with a complete disregard for animal sentience.
To me it is disgusting. To him, strapping the cougar to his Lambo is a sign of material success. It is overt, outrageous, exhibitionism of animal cruelty.
It is extraordinary to me that in the US you can shoot a puma dead in sport hunting but it would be a crime to shoot feral cat dead in the same way. That’s true. Some Americans think it is legal to shoot feral cats but it is not because you can’t tell if you are shooting someone’s pet. US law differentiates between wild cats and domestic cats on the matter of whether you can shoot them or not.
But they are both the same essentially. They both feel pain. What’s the difference? Allowing sport hunting is pandering to the enormously powerful sport hunting lobby. The politicians are scared of them. They’ll never ban sport hunting in the US.
If the UK had cougars, this activity would be a crime. The man would be arrested and put in the clink pending trial.
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