Hunter Tries To Justify The Killing Of Cecil The Lion's Son

In one of the most notorious heel debuts since Chris Jericho's 1999 arrival in the WWE, a hunter has appeared on This Morning justifying the killing of Cecil The Lion's son.

Diggory Hadoke, an author and hunting enthusiast, claimed that the survival of rare species benefits from organised hunting - drawing an unprecedented amount of heat from viewers.

Listen to what he had to say here:

Credit: ITV / This Morning

Trophy hunters reportedly shot and killed Xanda, the son of Cecil the Lion, in Zimbabwe yesterday.

But Diggory suggested that organised hunting was a positive for conservation, saying that the areas where animals can be hunted are often 'green and populated'.

"When legal hunting is banned, hunting still happens. The kill at the end of the hunt is part of a wider thing," Diggory explained.

When presenters asked if hunting was just murdering animals for fun, Diggory defended the bloodsport.

Credit: ITV / This Morning

He said: "To say that you pay money to go out and murder an animal... You could go to a pet shop, buy some kittens and strangle them.

"Animals are killed everyday and when a hunter kills an animal he will often eat the animal.

"I have eaten buffalo before. I have shot it, eaten it and then taken the skull and horns back to my home to hang them on my wall as an homage to the animal.

"It's an homage because I have taken weeks out of my life in difficult situations to hunt this animal."

Here's how viewers responded to the interview on Twitter:

In a statement on Facebook posted after the killing, Lions of Hwange National Park said: "Today we heard that a few days ago, Xanda, the son of #CecilTheLion has been shot on a trophy hunt by Zimbabwe PH Richard Cooke.

"Cooke also killed Xanda's brother in 2015, he was only about 4 years old then. Xanda is still a young father at 6.2 years old and has several young cubs. We can't believe that now, 2 years since Cecil was killed, that his oldest Cub #Xanda has met the same fate

"When will the Lions of Hwange National Park be left to live out their years as wild born free lions should?"

Xanda was just six year old when he was killed by a hunter, just like his father Cecil before him.

The killing of Cecil sparked international outcry in 2015. He was a major tourist attraction at the Park and was also a part of an ongoing study by the University of Oxford.

Topics: This Morning, Hunting

James Dawson

James Dawson is a Journalist at LADbible. He has contributed articles to LADbible’s ‘Knowing Me, Knowing EU’ series on the EU referendum, the 'Electoral Dysfunction' series on the 2017 general election, the ‘U OK M8?’ series tackling mental health amongst young men, and for its ‘Climate Change’ initiative in partnership with National Geographic.

@thejaytoday