Joshua the lion (right) (courtesy dailymail.co.uk)

After punting on the Cecil the lion poaching story – the Minnesota dentist who killed the Zimbabwean beast did so with arrows – we’re back on it. ‘Cause we’ve just learned that poachers have killed Cecil’s brother Jericho [above right] – with a gun. “The beloved animal was protecting Cecil’s lion cubs after he was shot dead by Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer earlier this month, sparking outrage around the world,” dailymail.co.uk reports. “Jericho is believed to have been gunned down during an illegal hunting operation in Hwange National Park on Saturday afternoon.” Wait. What? Does a lion’s brother protect lion cubs that aren’t his, even though they share a genetic link? Anyway . . .

Johnny Rodrigues, Chairman for Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, said in a statement: ‘It is with great sadness and regret that we report that Jericho was shot dead at 4pm this afternoon.

‘We are absolutely heartbroken. We have no further details but will advise as soon as we know more.’

No question: this latest lionicide will further calls for a ban on legal big game hunting on the African continent, which will further their march towards extinction. Just saying’ . . .

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79 COMMENTS

  2. Names in article summary and name in title do not match.

    Seems to be multiple mismatches.

  3. I’ve been told daily mail was bullshit news source (by some individuals), but people often link it. Can anyone tell me with some certainty what kind of credibility they have?

    • They are a tabloid that tries very hard to cover real news. Think halfway between The Enquirer and the New York Times.

      • I find the Daily Mail useful for updating myself on the goings on of skeezy/dopey actresses from the UK, and the latest booty picks from Kardashians.

        Telegraph actually does do a better job of reporting the news in the US,
        far better facts actually than the Old Gray Lady Gone Down on the One, and Now Going Down on HRC…

  4. Amazing how a damn lion makes the news, but the number of people that will be assaulted and even killed here in Chicago this weekend won’t even be a blip on the radar. #lionslivesmatter #fvckthehumanrace

    • 45 killed in Baltimore, which is the highest number for a single month in 45 years. May had 42, and June must have been cold outside with only 29.

        • They are mostly black so they aren’t important to white ammosexuals either, except to make a political point. So what else is new?

        • They are mostly black and being killed by other blacks so nobody is going to care including the black leaders, the black community, white liberals, gun control groups, politicians, cops, and about anybody else. Just another night in the socialist paradise.

      • Thankfully no Lion’s were harmed in Baltimore. /Sarc

        It is really disgusting that the people killed in urban areas have only become important to the media to advance political goals.

        For example “Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said the mounting homicide toll in his city of 600,000 is driven by Wisconsin’s “absurdly weak” gun laws”, there is more to the article but not much useful.

        http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/07/09/us-cities-homicide-surge-2015/29879091/

  7. There is so much emotion, and so little rationality in the responses to these stories, that it is hard to credit.

    What does illegal poaching have to do with legal hunting? There is almost no overlap. Legal hunting protects lion habitat and populations, poaching does not.

  8. My wife, a big time animal rights person explained to me how Joshua and other male lions would kill Cecil’s male offspring. Lions live by another standard than some would like them to live by.

    • I came to this post to say this… male lions kill the cubs of other lions, it forces the females into another “heat” allowing the new alpha to spread his genes.

    • “The beloved animal was protecting Cecil’s lion cubs after he was shot. My oldest daughter is an animal freak and she calls BS on this. I think this whole story is BS and is just propaganda to outlaw big game hunts in Africa.

  9. If legal trophy hunting is necessary because humans are too god damned venal, short-sighted, and selfish to preserve these species otherwise, then so be it. On the other hand, poachers of these species, and the people who enable them, should all be executed.

    • “…Oh Vee. Come now. Have another baby-arm sandwich….”

      Perhaps he’d like a bit of Brain Tofu to go with that arm sandwich? Highly recommended by those in the know, ya know? 😉

  10. “Does a lion’s brother protect lion cubs that aren’t his, EVEN THOUGH they share a genetic link?”

    I assume you meant BECAUSE they share a genetic link. Siblings have been known to co-rule prides, so it is certainly possible. Or it could just be emotional people anthropomorphising the story. Or dishonest people anthropomorphising for more impact on emotional people.

  13. Joshua was shot by a cop when he wouldn’t show his ID and made a furtive movement. In protest, #catlivesmatter burned down a hut while claiming that Joshua was a gentle giant. Film at 11.

      • That countries in Africa that really need the cash flow are going to make a stand that cuts the cash flow? And if they did, who are they hurting?

      • Yes. But if legal hunting was banned in Africa you could go to Australia or Alaska or a dozen other places for primo big game hunting.

        Africans are not going to cut the cash flow from legal hunting. So hunt away. Just watch out for them crocs.

        I’d miss your stories if the croc got lucky.

      • Tom just a question, as you have been there, done that-

        What time does it get dark that time of year in Zimbabwe? 10PM was the time of the shot, as I read in the hunters own testimony, right?

        If No Shooting After Sunset plus 30 min rules are basic “fair chase”, simply because you cant realistically see to trail the animal, and finish the kill, much less a very dangerous wounded lion in the brush, then how was that a sporting kill?

        Especially with a bow?

    • “…It’s official: no one reads the other comments…”

      Oh, we read them, then choose to ignore them. So what? It isn’t like we’re selecting to ignore something important.

  16. The Zimbabweans at the local level want to know why we’re so upset over something they consider a nuisance predator, and why the hell don’t we care about the citizens that are dying like flies there, some of them from Lion or Elephant attacks? Get over it people, it’s sad and it’s stupid, and it’s human, but it ain’t Simba.

    • Because it is just a big house cat and cats are cute. Also black lives don’t matter. Especially if they are African lives. /sarc

    • The Zimbabweans aren’t upset- they are laughing at the clueless Americans and Europeans who dont understand the reality of government corruption in Africa, or the impact of dollars from tourism on the poor.

      I mean, if hundreds of thousands of poor black children deaths are ignored, here,
      (Planned Parenthood), why would anyone care about a lion over there, whose existence actually does feed hungry black children, legally or by poaching- for tourist dollars to hunt in Africa.

  17. The absurdity of “lion-gate” boggles the mind.

    Monsters from Boko Haram kill hundreds of people, not a peep from these libtards. Kill one freaking lion, OMG! Chicken Little, the sky is f***ing falling. OMG!

    Jeez-freaking-louise.

  18. I ain’t lion-this is BS. No lion protects cubs that aren’t their own. Are you sure this isn’t just another (not so funny satire) from The Onion?

    • Co-pride males do. Both males mate repeatedly with a female in heat during her cycle, so actual paternity is unknown.

  19. The phrase ‘who gives a f*uck’ springs to mind.

    As hard as I try, I just can’t bring myself to care about this story.

  24. Two things.

    1.”….latest lionicide will further calls for a ban on legal big game hunting….” I thought the brother was poached. How would further calls for a ban on legal big game hunting prevented the brother from being popped.
    2. When there is this much coverage on a topic that 90% of the people could give less of a crap about on any other day then look hard because the media is trying to hide something important.

    • How would further calls for a ban on legal big game hunting prevented the brother from being popped.

      Dunno. But I do know that every time a bad guy does something bad, the grabbers try to take guns away from the people who didn’t do it. Same thing, different day.

  25. A wee ma way, a wee ma way,
    a wee ma way, a wee ma way,
    In the jungle, the mighty jungle
    the lion sleeps-with-the-fishes tonight!

  26. I think Zimbabwe has some bigger fish to fry that a couple of dead lions.

    Unless, of course, dead humans are a lesser concern.

    • There’s 7 billion humans in the world, and 30,000 lions. So, yeah, even a mountain of dead humans doesn’t mean a thing. It’s not like we’re going to run out of people any time soon.

  27. Don’t lions kill each other over territory and breeding rights?

    Put another way: if a lion falls in the Serengeti (and there’s no rich white guy with a military style crossbow to blame for it), does the whiny liberal media make a sound?

    • Don’t lions kill each other over territory and breeding rights?

      So they’re a lot like us, but with better hair.

      • Basically. It’s the hair. Chicks dig the hair. Now, if only they had opposable thumbs, too………well, they’d probably be running this place.

  28. The socialist in Germany were real big animal lovers in the 1930s. They just hated people. Socialist today have the same thinking.

  31. Co-pride males protect all cubs. They all mate repeatedly with any female in heat, so paternity is confused. Also, co-pride males are often sibs, or at least half sibs, so defending your brother’s cubs defends your genes. Ala Dawkins, natural selection is about genes, not individual whole organisms.

  34. BREAKING NEWS JERICHO HAS BEEN SHOT TODAY AT 4pm It is with huge disgust and sadness that we have just been informed that Jericho, Cecil s brother has been killed at 4pm today.

  35. One of the first steps to getting hunting banned is to name the animals. It’s no big deal to take a deer, it’s heartbreaking when Bambi bites the big one….

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