Recently, American hunter Rebecca Francis experienced a brief moment of fame when comedian Ricky Gervais responded to a picture she had posted online of her smiling and laying down next to a giraffe corpse. Gervais tweeted: “What must’ve happened to you in your life to make you want to kill a beautiful animal & then lie next to it smiling?”

I couldn’t agree more with Gervais’ comment. The line between hunting for sustenance and hunting to add trophies to the wall increasingly blurs, and those who enjoy the latter facilitate the decline of many beautiful animals around the world. According to CNN, there are about 80,000 giraffes in Africa, a decline of about 60,000 in the last 15 years.

Hunting as a sport is absolutely deplorable, and it disgusts me that some individuals see killing an amazing creature as an achievement. It is unfortunate that we live in a country where television programming like The Hunting Channel exists. As a species, we initially hunted as a method of survival. Now we have devolved to hanging the heads of deer and bears on our walls. I cannot fathom how one can kill an animal without feeling guilty that they have ripped it out of its natural habitat without giving it a fighting chance.

Although I am not a vegetarian, I do understand the questionable nature of the meat industry, and I also understand hunting as a sport and killing an animal for food are vastly different concepts.

I’m not questioning the legality of Francis’ actions. I am, however, questioning the morality of it. To kill these creatures is one thing, but to pose with them like trophies is sickening.

We should not hunt and kill animals just to add them to a list or to hang them on a wall. Our cold-blooded murder of animals needs to end.

Trevor Stoimenoff is a Weinberg junior. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected].