Earlier this week, I read a Washington Post article about a popular grizzly bear nicknamed Scarface that roamed Yellowstone National Park, who was shot and killed last November, but the authorities are just now investigating the death. The article read like one of those true-crime cold case shows about a murder that is shrouded in mystery. One without any leads for the tenacious investigators—the U.S Fish and Wildlife Services—to follow. The reason this murder is getting so much attention is because grizzly bears have been protected by the Endangered Species Act since 1975.
The article made me feel conflicted. Half of me was upset. As a self-proclaimed animal lover, I always get sullen when a wild beast is found dead due to man’s inventions, one way or another. The other half was filled with dread. If the general public reacts to Scarface’s death the same way they reacted to Cecil the lion's death last year, then I know there will be that oxygen-depriving conversation about gun control, and this will be another reason why anti-gun advocates think people shouldn’t own guns.
A side note on Cecil the lion for those who forgot: In 2015, a dentist from Minnesota with a fetish for going to different continents to hunt animals Western society deems “exotic,” killed a popular research lion that was so adored he was given a name. This event brought big game hunting under the microscope, with people wondering what the point of the sport is.
Personally, I don’t have a clue. As someone who has never gone hunting, I can’t testify to it one or way or another, but I’m a firm believer that if you hunt something, the purpose should be for more than a trophy. The hunter should be killing that creature for a source of food or warmth if the pelt is needed.
Alas, what I just described is a forgotten way. Of course, there is still hunting for food, but it’s still a sport. The majority of the people who hunt don’t do it to survive, it’s just a passed down tradition that nobody has an intention to end.
That’s the problem with the hunting of Cecil the lion. He was just made a trophy, but I think what happened to Scarface the grizzly was worse, because he wasn’t even taken as a trophy. He wasn’t killed for meat or warm fur, or even stuffed. Just killed and left there.
At first, I tried to convince myself that maybe the bear attacked some hunter and they defended themselves by shooting the bear. But I couldn’t, mainly because if someone was attacked by a bear, killed said animal and survived to tell the tale, then that’s exactly what they would do. They would tell anyone they could about their heroics. I know I would. Also, considering the bear was found six months ago, the people investigating the death would probably investigate local stories of someone being attacked by a bear and defying odds by getting the best of the bear.
In all reality, it was probably someone who was out hunting in the middle of the Yellowstone wilderness, saw the bear and saw their opportunity to kill a grizzly bear without getting in trouble.
As much as the Endangered Species Act has helped save animals, on the other hand, it created the ultimate hunt list for those big game hunters with unlimited means. What am I saying? Even someone with very limited means could go on hunts for “exotic” animals.
Hunting is an aspect of life I don’t think will ever die out. Even when all the animals are gone, the ecosystem is destroyed and people are eating 3-D printed food, there will still be hunting. The only difference is that the game will be on two feet instead of four.
