This Photo Sums Up Everything That's Wrong With America Today

I'm not good with animal cruelty, and I'm not good with animal death. I can't watch fake versions of it in television and movies, and I can't hear of the latest cruel thing people are doing to animals (and yet, people still feel compelled to tell me), and I don't like reading stories about it. 

I don't know all the details about the death of Cecil the Lion, but I know more than I need to. When I see pictures of hunters with their "trophies," and hear the stories of the bagging that antelope, I cry. 

What's even worse than hunting (which is disgusting) are the zombie-like people, especially children, who don't seem to feel anything whether they're killing something, or are completely oblivious to what's going on around them.

Recently, photos that Allen Tarpley tweeted of his son leaning against a dead lion while on his on his tablet have surfaced.

These photos were taken a number of years ago, but uploaded to Twitter last year and then pulled when they were unearthed by South African animal activist group We Will Not Be Silenced About Hunters.

Here's the sickening photo:

Photo: Twitter

Excuse me, kid, do you think you could look up from your tablet a minute? 

In an article in the Daily Mail, the awful excuse of a human being who posted this picture said, "One lion gets killed and everyone goes crazy." Um, that's not the only problem here. Maybe it's not just the hunting, we're objecting to — maybe it's the fact that you think it's cool to include your kids, and the fact that your kids are completely checked out.

What's happening to us as a society that makes us so shut down and closed off to the things going around us?  

Tarpley's reasoning was that outsiders don't understand hunting, and then went on an insane rant about how people should be more concerned about pregnancy and Planned Parenthood selling baby parts than any dead animal.

Say what? Join me in shaking your head at this lunatic/idiot.

He's obviously not going to win any parenting awards. I mean, his kid isn't exactly taking this whole African animal slaughter as a learning experience; he's completely disconnected from his surroundings and focused on his electronic device. 

Even if I could get behind the hunting aspect, the fact that the dad included his children in the hunting excursion, took their pictures while posing them with the dead animals, and then took offense at people calling him out on his behavior, is beyond bad parenting — it's a staggering lack of awareness that he's obviously passing on to his children.

What's the next step? I hate to say it, but if you're that immune to death, what's to stop the kid from becoming a killer of humans? Serial killers often get their start on innocent animals.

The worst thing is how numb his kid is to the fact that he's propped up against what was once a magnificent animal. 

Using a dead lion as furniture is revolting. What's wrong with children today that they're so desensitized to death and pain that they mindlessly continue playing video games, rather than feel anything real like empathy, sadness, and/or regret?

Apparently, Tarpley isn't doing much hunting these days. No, not because he came to his senses and realized that not only was it wrong, but he was sending a very bad message to his children — he's not hunting because he can no longer afford it.

Tarpley said, "I have not hunted in years, in about three years. We quit hunting. We couldn't afford it, and that's where I'm at. We did a couple of hunts and that's it."

I don't know what kind of example he thought he was setting, and since he shared the photos he's obviously proud of his parenting skills, and is satisfied with the way he's raising his children. He's apparently happy that his kids have no empathy, no connection, and a complete lack of respect for life.

You'd think a trip to Africa would be an experience no kid would ever forget, but that kid was so cut off from what was happening around him. It makes me very sad for the youth of today if killing something is no big deal, and is just something to prop yourself up against while you play a game, baking in the African sun.