By LINDA E. TROUP
Commander, USN, retired
Have you seen the famous video of Christian, the magnificent adult lion living free in the wild who suddenly sees his long-ago nurturers approaching in distant brush? Christian picks up their scent, becomes visibly excited and rapidly runs toward the two men, their joyful reunion still enjoyed by millions online.
Christian obviously remembers them, clamors to greet, then passionately hugs, embraces the two men who raised him as a cub, all three together after their long separation.
Viewers marveled to see that a fearsome wild animal could display such an emotional, playful greeting. Clearly, this was not anthropomorphism but a display of real interspecious love.
That tender relationship capacity between humans and animals makes the Texas cheerleader’s recent savage, serial murders of beautiful African animals a most egregious act of ignorance. It indicates a detached, violent mentality so offensive that photos of her carnage were globally protested, then removed from popular social media due to their blatant display of extreme animal cruelty.
Ignorance breeds barbarity. One does not love what one does not know. One does not respect or value what one does not appreciate. Ignorance makes it easier to cross the line to exploitation and abuse. So it is the failure of that girl’s upbringing, her schooling, her parenting that omitted teaching respect for life, blunted her empathy, allowed such awful destruction of a magnitude that clearly obviates compassion, promotes brutality and defies humanity.
Although her sensational kills were legal, history has shown that what has been legal has not always been moral or ethical. Conservation was one of the many lame, absurd excuses for these thrill kills, her oxymoron that does not, will not, exonerate these awful acts of violence.
What can one say about the character of anyone who derives pleasure from hunting down, terrorizing and killing innocent animals? To regard animals as units or masses, some surplus to be limited by an arrogant, arbitrary number as their natural habitat is reduced, blatantly ignores that each animal has a unique personality, a family and a strong desire to live and has value. These atrocities conveyed an attitude that values animal life only for one’s own twisted entertainment, for sick trophy value. The very concept of thrill kills indicates mental depravity.
Killing the “big five” — lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo, throw in a zebra — was extremely insensitive and demonstrated the antithesis of living a nonviolent life, to which all great spiritual leaders ascribe for a good, meaningful and fulfilling life.
Until we recognize the precious uniqueness and value of each animal, we will someday look back at our disrespectful species-ist behavior with great regret and terrible shame. If any good comes from this tragic loss of life, perhaps parents everywhere will learn from the worldwide outrage it generated from people who love animals and they may more earnestly teach their children respect, kindness and compassion for all life.
— Linda E. Troup of Poulsbo retired from the U.S. Navy as department head of the Ambulatory Procedure Unit and senior nurse officer for maxillofacial surgery at Naval Medical Center — San Diego. She is a long-time animal welfare proponent and has written for San Diego Animal Advocates magazine.
