Cecil the lion: Things people say are more deserving of your outrage

Why do people care more about a lion than human beings?

That's the question some are asking on social media after international outrage over the killing of Cecil the lion by a US dentist in Zimbabwe.

Hundreds of articles and hours of airtime have been devoted to Cecil's story.

Many people feel far more outrageous things are happening that deserve coverage.

This is the name of a 43-year-old-man in the US who was shot dead by a university police officer after being pulled over during a routine traffic stop.

The county prosecutor in Ohio said he was shocked by the video of the incident, which occurred on 19 July.

He told the media: "I've been doing this for over 30 years. This is the most asinine act I've ever seen a police officer make - totally unwarranted."

Officer Ray Tensing was charged with murder on Wednesday. He claims he feared for his life after being dragged along by the car.

Many pointed out his death wasn't getting as much attention as the death of a lion.

"What the activists say is true. People care about a lion vastly, and a dead black person barely. How shameful and sad and disgusting," wrote author Umair Haque.

"I didn't do the search. But I know one thing: I better not see more concern for #CeciltheLion or a damn rap battle than #SamDubose" wrote QuestLove Gomez

"I'm personally going to start wearing a lion costume when I leave my house so if I get shot, people will care," joked Roxanne Gay.

According to Topsy in the last day there have been 12,998 tweets about Samuel Dubose, compared with 223,000 for #CecilTheLion.

Some mentioned Samuel and Cecil in the same tweet saying it was not a competition and people should care about both.

We don't know his name, but he was one of the hundreds of migrants who tried to enter the Channel Tunnel on Tuesday night trying to get to Britain. French police said he was probably crushed by a lorry.

He has been described as Sudanese and aged between 25 and 30. He is the ninth person to die trying to access the tunnel since June.

In April BBC News spoke to Mohammed, a 35-year-old migrant from North Sudan, who had made the journey to Calais from North Dafur. He said: "If you turn back they will kill you."

People have been tweeting about the concern over Cecil's death compared with a migrant death.

"IMMIGRANTS. Make media outlets care about you by simply changing your name to Cecil the illegal immigrant," tweeted one.

"The dead lion Cecil gets more sympathy than a Sudanese young man dying under a truck in France, he is just a migrant!" tweeted another.

Many are arguing that if you care about Cecil, you should care about how the meat on your plate was produced.

"Cecil's death was, sadly, more humane than the way the majority of animals we consume die. So, like, just consider pausing on meat," wrote one vegetarian.

Psychologist Dr Charlotte Hilton explains there are a few reasons Cecil's story has attracted such outrage and empathy.

Sometimes people care about animals because they are perceived as more "innocent", she says.

"We tend to be drawn to things that we see as being vulnerable which is why we tend to feel more empathy for children or toddlers," Charlotte says

She also says the media "is very significant in influencing the public's attitude".

People relate better to individual stories too, she says, adding: "The greater the depth of the detail the more important they seem to be."

She also says we may have become desensitised to human stories of tragedy.

"The more we become exposed to something, the less we are affected by it. There's a possibility that historically we've been exposed so much to tragic tales of human suffering that we've become desensitised and it takes much more for us to feel the same shock and outrage that we feel with the recent incident with the lion."

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