Social media can teach your average person many things. The biggest scandal on mainstream and alternative news sites as well as the usual Twitter, Facebook and others was the killing in Zimbabwe of the protected lion Cecil.

Let us start at the top. The killing of a protected species, one as magnificent as an African pride leading lion is just abominable, atrocious and barbaric. To write about the killing itself, especially from the point of view of a publishing house that has always championed animal rights, is very difficult.

 The social media backlash against the US cosmetic dentist who killed Cecil has been huge. Walter Palmer's dental practice in Minneapolis has been closed since he was named as the tourist who shot Cecil. His webpage has gone dark and he has since gone off the radar.

Two Zimbabwean men have been charged over the death and local police say Mr Palmer may also face poaching charges.

But what does all this teach us? On the surface, the answer is simple. People do not like it when animals are killed for sport - especially endangered species.

But it is also a reflection of the fact that people are very ready to get out in the social media world and voice disgust, distaste, condemnation and much more... yet they are not ready to back it up in person.

A very similar state of affairs was witnessed during Malta's Spring Hunting Referendum. Tens of thousands voiced their anger at the practice, yet when it came to the crunch, it was easier to bleat and moan on Facebook than it was to collect one's vote and cast it.

But back to Cecil. It is amazing to see that while many Maltese people have leapt up in condemnation (as it should be), they remain very silent on other issues. A number of Maltese Facebook users pointed out how people were very quick to express disgust at the killing of a lion, however, choose to remain silent in the face of a much bigger tragedy - and that is loss of human life.

Those who posed the question were hit by the usual hailstorm of racist abuse and round condemnation because they dared to point out that losing humans was more important that losing lions. The point these people were trying to make, of course, is that people continue to die every day in the Mediterranean and the brutality of regimes around the world, including in Syria and in Africa.

It is indeed, quite sad to think that people can be awoken into a state of consciousness by a lion being shot, yet the thought of men, women and children drowning on packed boats fails to stir a reaction. We have a lot to learn from this. Protecting the world we live in is of paramount importance to us all. Safeguarding species which might soon be driven to extinction through the folly and whims of man is also important. But above all else, we must maintain the sanctity of human life. If we forget that human life is important, by definition, we become sub human ourselves.