English: Male lion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Let’s hope that the “deep concern” felt by Obama’s officials translates into global action.

Hunting because you have too little too eat is one thing–My uncles in Italy were all expert marksmen who hunted birds to eat in the 1930s, when Churchill was applying sanctions against Mussolini to curb his African adventurism.

Hunting to control foxes and animals like wolves to protect livestock which produce food and useful products like food is reasonable provided that animals are dispatched humanely.

The same can be said of the bungled UK Government attempt to cull badgers, which cause TB in cattle.

I would not go quite so far as Dr Alf in wanting to have Walter Palmer incarcerated in Guantanomo Bay but this overweight dentist and others, who pay money to hunt defenseless creatures with helicopters or trick the animals into straying out of their territories, so that they can be killed for sport need to be financially punished and made to do court enforced conservation work in a zoo, so that he understands the consequences of his actions.

We live in an eco-system which is finely balanced and by killing too many or preserving too many of a particular animal or bird we risk upsetting it.

Lions,hyenas,vultures,sharks,crows,eagles,harriers,owls and wolves are there to keep the species of the animals they prey upon strong and in balance.

Killing them for sport disrupts that balance and changes the environment through knock on effects which we cannot predict or quantify.

John Gelmini