Lions

Panthera leo has been in the news recently and I thought it would be a consciousness-raiser and useful thought experiment to consider some of the issues involved.  I am not a lawyer but a conservation biologist at vets' school.

For a foreign hunter to act lawfully, if s/he is travelling to foreign soil carrying a weapon, to leave the home state and country with the weapon of choice, the owner presumably has to have a licence to carry the weapon and a licence to own it. Also perhaps a licence to take it out of the country, perhaps even the state, and the right paperwork to bring it into the Sub-Saharan country involved. And I presume the right paperwork stating the tour operator, the location of hunting, the quarry, the hunting method and receipt for fees paid and paperwork for trophy export.

Ethical hunting

Let's assume that the tour operator is a legal entity. Any professional association connected with regulating the activity and keeping standards up will most likely have a code of ethics that member tour operators are obliged to adhere to.

Hunting is not necessarily cruel per-se if the hunter can ensure adequate shot-placement with a weapon of sufficient calibre, thus ensuring a clean kill and instant death.  If those conditions are not met the act is unethical and, depending upon country, hunting may be illegal anyway.

Lion Conservation
The lion exists in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.  In some it is classified as Panthera leo melanochaita, and although it faces several threats, in some of these couunties it is increasing.
Some uses of the lion as a natural resource can be considered beneficial under certain circumstances if well managed.  When poorly managed, events take place that can be unethical, immoral and indefensible on many levels.