AUGUST 5 ― I am not the first writer to opine about the death of Cecil the lion that has garnered worldwide attention, nor will I probably be the last, nonetheless I’m choosing to weigh in on the issue.

Cecil the lion, I had never heard of him in life. But he has topped the news in death.

The facts of what happened in perhaps the most famous lion hunt ever will probably never actually be known. Zimbabwe, where the hunt occurred, has one of the most corrupt governments in the world.

That means that the legality of what happened, or what did or didn’t happen, will probably never actually be known except by the people who were directly involved; Walter Palmer and the rest of the people on this hunting expedition.

Having lived myself in several extremely corrupt nations, and having firsthand experience with the fact that laws are often brushed aside when it is convenient or advantageous for officials, I find myself somewhat sympathetic towards Mr. Palmer. The reality is he may have believed, and was probably told, he was doing everything legally above board.

In fact, it is highly possible that the hunting team was, in fact, doing everything legal. It is likely that they did seek out proper permits and pay proper taxes. It is also highly likely that it doesn’t matter.

Whether or not the hunters were doing everything legal or not, what they were doing is deplorable. The killing of an animal as a trophy is, in my opinion, despicable. They were not hunting for food, nor were they hunting to kill an animal that was a danger to society. They were hunting for sport, and killed simply to kill. There is no excuse in my book for these actions.

But while Cecil the lion’s death is a tragedy, what I find simply reprehensible is the public outcry to the death of one, single lion, when in the days since Cecil died, 32 as of the August 2, 928,000 children have died from preventable causes worldwide, this according to UNICEF statistics (29,000 children every day).

Nine hundred, twenty-eight thousand children. Dead.

One lion. Dead.

Almost one million children and one lion killed by preventable causes.

Malnutrition contributes to nearly HALF of the children who died this past month since Cecil died.

Four hundred thousand children died this month because they didn’t have food and clean water.

And one lion.

And, my friends, we could have done something about that.

In fact, Zimbabwe, who under intense international pressure is now seeking to extradite Mr. Palmer for the killing of one lion, is spending a massive amount of resources to appease the angry people of the world who have risen up seeking for his arrest and for justice.

And yet the children of Zimbabwe are also suffering. Statistically the 928,000 children who died this month were mostly in South Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, in which Zimbabwe falls.

I think Mr. Palmer should be punished; though I am loathe to suggest that he should face punishment in Zimbabwe where I highly doubt he will be given anything close to a fair trial. I hope that Mr. Palmer never, ever, hunts another animal for sport and for a trophy. The extravagant amount of money he spent on one hunt alone could have saved the lives of countless children.

Yet I wonder what punishment we should all face, for surely we are all responsible to some degree for the 928,000 who died this month, or the approximately 50 children who have died since you have begun reading this article.

Do we get to go unpunished simply because there is no law in place that says we are responsible? Does not our own moral code demand that the outcry for the lives of 928,000 children be at least as great as the outcry for one lion?

But I feel that as many of the things in life that are unjust, it is easier for us to be angry at the senseless killing of a lion in a far-off land like Zimbabwe, than it is to think about 928,000 children, because the truth is our hearts DO demand we do something about it, and the fact is we just don’t want to.

Because it is going to be uncomfortable and it is going to be difficult. It is going to make us think about them every time our own tummies are overfull with a meal, or we take our own children for immunisation, or we even watch them playing and laughing at the park.

Cecil the lion’s death is sad and unfortunate, but nine hundred and twenty-eight thousand dead children is a tragedy.

*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.