OSU researchers question acceptance of trophy hunting

Cecil the Lion

“It’s almost like an ethical distraction, calling it by some other name,” said co-author Michael Paul Nelson, a professor and the Ruth H. Spaniol Chair of Renewable Resources at OSU. “We have these metaphors that we hide behind. It’s like we recognize it’s an ethically loaded topic but we don’t know what to do about it. And we’ve tied conservation to the practice of trophy hunting – how do we get off that train?”