I know someone who has eaten lion - says it's tasty (just to answer the question) - In his case Mountain lion, but I've heard the "African Plains Lion" is also tasty.

Shooting just for a trophy = wrong
Hunting to eat it = OK particularly if the game in question has an overpopulation problem - see eastern White Tailed deer - we have actually increased their habitat, while decreasing the habitat and population of their preditors - just about the only 3 population controls on them are 1)Hunting, 2)Cars and 3)Starvation (BTW if I remember right - cars are actually a bigger killer than hunters)

The fox thing wasn't really hunting but protecting your vested interest i.e. chickens/cattle/cockatoos. Tracking something that is marauding your live stock happens all the time on farms and ranches. I'm sure there are some hard-line animal protection-type folks that would claim you should capture and relocate - which is a great option. However, this option can take huge amounts of time may not always feasable.

After you got the foxes, at least you left them strewn about the coutryside out in the field insted of tossing them in the trash can. Being out in the wild, they will eventually benifit nature by alowing something else to drag them off and dine on their bodies. And this concludes the latest explaination of the circle of life ;)

re: animals hunting humans while humans are hunting

This happens all the time. But the mountain lion who assesses you as you walk through the woods wisely chooses not to go for it -- there's easier prey. And try walking up on a bull moose during the rut right about sundown; the matchup is even at best (slightly weighted in the moose's favor). The badger living under the line shack we spent the night in in Wyoming didn't feel particularly undermatched when it came barrelling out towards us, teeth popping. The alligator that found its way into our stock tank in TX after the creek flooded was 8 feet long and hid in 4-foot-tall grass. On the way out to kill/chase it off we found the skin of a rattlesnake that was probably as long as the gator...or it looked that way to me at 11 years old. Outside of our urban environment, humans are anything BUT the top of the totem pole. Cry me a river, Ingrid Newkirk.

I have actually eaten farmed lion, in a restaurant, which came from a farm in Texas where trophy hunting is done. It was tasty, but I don't think I'd do it again. More scruples now.

I have no trouble with venison. Deer populations are huge and they need a measure of predation to stay strong. Wild venison has to be better for you than feedlot beef. I hope the prion problem doesn't ruin it though.

I probably would have used the foxes though. I don't like to waste the life of animals, even predators.

And, Noodle, mountain lions do not always turn to easier prey. Know a bicyclist on the Olympic penninsula who was on road and felt prickles on her neck. It was a mountain lion bearing down on her. She finally jumped off her bike, held it in front of her and screamed at the cat while it tried to circle for 15 minutes. It left when a car came, but gave her a "I'll get you later" look.

I could certainly have put the fox skins to good use ...