NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The killing of Cecil the lion has placed big game hunting under the microscope.
Thousands of Americans have paid top dollar to legally hunt everything from lions to grizzly bears.
The question asked by many after what happened to Cecil has been: Why?
"He improperly killed a lion that shouldn't have even been hunted," said Dan Warlick, who himself has been a big game hunter.
But Warlick won't defend Walter Palmer who killed Cecil in Africa, and he said it's wrong for Palmer to blame his guides who have been charged with poaching.
"You are the man with the finger on the trigger, you are responsible for what you do," said Warlick.
Warlick has never hunted a lion, but the prominent Nashville attorney showed us photographs of the elk, moose, and grizzly bears he's legally killed on high-dollar hunting trips to Canada.
"I prefer to hunt fair chase with no fences. Wild animals in their normal habitat," said Warlick.
Warlick said he knew outrage over Palmer's actions in Africa have many now questioning the conduct of all big game hunters.
To date he's killed several bears and said his take is part of Canada's carefully monitored wildlife managment plan.
He likened it to how TWRA manages deer in this state.
Still some will still wonder why Warlick has gone out hunting for big game like bears?
"You really feel alive when you hear the break of a stick and it could be a bear about to take your head off," said Warlick.
Warlick made no apologys for hunting big game.
He said he knows some will never understand, but unlike Palmer he said he and many others do it right.
"I'm a responsible hunter. I like to think I am," said Warlick.
Like it or not, every year thousands of trophy hunters, mostly from north America and Europe, have headed to places like Africa or Canada after big game.
It's become a multi-million dollar business, and with money like that at stake, experts said Cecil certainly won't be the last lion hunted and killed.
Many countries have continued to allow the big game hunting of lions, rhinos and even giraffes -- charging huge fees.
But there has now been a movement in the U.S. to prohibit hunters from bringing the trophy animals back into this country.
