Thursday, July 10, 2008

Humans are Despicable: reason # 5,780,600,450.

This article makes me so angry and frustrated for so many reasons:

Malawi's killer lion shot dead
By Raphael Tenthani 
BBC, Lilongwe

Four game hunters have killed a marauding lion some two
 months after it broke free from a game park, killing up to
seven people.


The carcass of the bullet-riddled lion is currently on
display at the nature sanctuary here in the capital,
Lilongwe, and has been the centre of attraction the
whole weekend.

 killer lion 

Harrison Phula, one of the four hunters that successfully stalked the

 ageing and hungry lion, told journalists on Monday it was not an easy

 task to overpower the lion.

He said it took a total of four bullets to kill the animal but even after 

stopping the first two bullets in its belly, the beast still charged at the 

hunters, injuring two of them.

"With intestines coming out of its belly the lion lunged at two 

of us injuring one in the leg and crashing an arm of the other," 

he said.

The two injured hunters are currently in hospital in the northern

 central district of Kasungu, where the lion was shot.

Loose pride

Scratches still showing on his arms, face and legs, Mr Phula 

said when the two remaining hunters saw their friends were in 

danger, they pumped two more bullets into the lion and physically 

struggled with it until it died.

"We fought with it until it died," he said.


"Maybe we succeeded because of the intestines that were
 coming
 out. The good thing is that we fought with it and that our
 friends
did not die."

The hunter said the fully grown lion, which is guessed

 to be between eight and 10 years old, was so heavy that

 eight people could not manage to lift it into a truck.

However, if the beleaguered people of Kasungu, Nkhota

 Kota and Mzimba thought life was now back to normal with

 the death of the notorious beast, they may have another

 thing coming.

Assistant Director of Parks and Wildlife Hackswell Jamusana said a

 pride of three more lions has also broken free from Kasungu 

National Park and are lurking somewhere in the bushes around the 

three districts.

Mr Jamusana, however, said the people living around the 

national park have unwittingly brought the lion menace onto 

their own doorsteps.

"People vandalised the entire 110 kilometres of electric fence 

along the eastern boundary of the park which used to prevent 

animals from getting out of the park to human settlement," he 

said.

Over the years, heavy poaching has led to a decline in the 

numbers of small game such as deer and impalas, which the 

lions normally eat, he said.

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