Sometimes much is in a name.
Firstly, to press the emotional button of the sheeple: name the animal.
(for emotional response: "Cecil" beats "...male lion...")
Secondly, the term "trophy hunter" is a poor descriptor -- a tiresome ball-and-chain on the hunting community -- wrongly implying that it's all about the trophy when for most, it's all about the hunt. The trophy only catalogs and commemorates the hunts.
If it were all about the trophy, an impressive mount could be purchased for a fraction of the cost of a hunt.
I know of at least one trophy hunter who's mounts are perpetually in storage while he is out perpetually hunting.
If there is to be consistency, then condemn every subsistence hunter with a set of antlers above the fireplace, representing Tommy's first deer or dad's big moose. Those are commemorative tokens taken from the animal... trophies.
If there is to be consistency, then condemn every varmint hunter who has expressed pleasure or satisfaction while clearing nuisance animals from farmland.
Why outrage over a single lion, but never fields and fields of gophers?
Ironically, the misunderstanding of "trophy hunter" often arises from people who impose their Gucci and Louis-Vuitton worldview on what the term must mean -- maybe it's no coincidence that Hollywood condemns the loudest -- the culture that derives happiness from material acquisition and judges success by the accumulation of material wealth -- seen through their filter, a "trophy hunter" is automatically derogatory, like a "trophy wife".
What if the hunting community began referring to "trophy hunters" as something else?
How powerful is a name?
* * * *
Thought experiment: I am crashing a dinner party for Stop Trophy Hunting, speaking to a young lady:
Her: "So what do you do?"
Me: "I'm a conservational apex hunter"
Her: "What... we're all against hunting! What exactly is that?"
Me: "We work with local government and local communities to cull the oldest and largest males in a group of animals, from time-to-time, and we invest into the local communities to ensure the preservation of those animals and their habitat.
Her: "Why do they need culling?"
Me: "Even well-past their peak breeding years, the old males continue to monopolize the females and dominate the younger males. By selectively culling the apex male -- with minimal stress, in his natural habitat -- we let the younger males contribute to the genetic diversity of the group.
Her: "That's fascinating. I've never heard of Conservational Apex Hunting before. It's so ecologically positive!
It must be difficult to euthanize such a majestic and beautiful animal though."
Me: "The difficult part is tracking him and getting close to him in his own terrain.
Some people have a natural inclination to hunt, maybe it's a longstanding evolutionary trait, but I thoroughly enjoy what I do.
Yes they are beautiful and majestic -- and because they represent the physical apex of the species in that region at that time, I will usually keep and some representational part of the animal -- antlers, horns or even a full mount. Also as a memorial of each expedition."
Her: "I'm okay with that, since they're already culled. I like your honesty. I am so relieved that you're not some kind of trophy hunter."
Me: **cough**
Her: Most guys around here talk about conservation but you are actually getting your elbows dirty doing something worthwhile... I like that.
Maybe we should get out of here and go somewhere a little more private....?