On hunting and whether hunting for trophies is morally equivalent to hunting animals for their meat

This reflects discussion I had with friends on the topic of hunting following the killing of a lion, Cecil in Zimbabwe by an American. This article from the Washington Post gives you some background on the case and the following video from Jimmy Kimmel highlights the comedian's views on the matter:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/cecil-the-lions-killer-may-have-trouble-avoiding-extradition-experts-say/2015/07/31/6100c7cc-37be-11e5-9739-170df8af8eb9_story.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LzXpE1mjqA

Here are my reactions:

I have never hunted and doubt ever will. As is, I would be happy if I could get by without eating any meat if I could. Maybe some day. But given that I eat meat, the idea of hunting an animal and eating its meat makes some sense to me. But what doesn't is the idea of killing an animal only to put up its head on a mantle as a showpiece. It isn't a show of one's physical prowess for sure because one party has a gun, the other doesn't. If it has to be a show of physical prowess or virility then one should fight the animal with one's bare hands and see if one emerges victorious or not. At the end of the day, animals are also nature's creation and if there is an Almighty, I doubt that He would look favorably at the senseless killing of one of His creations.

This led to a question from one of my friends: Should lions never be hunted? Bears? Mountain lions?

My subsequent response:
My position is this - if animals are hunted, then my conscience would be more or less clean if it is for one of these two reasons: a) the animal threatened me and I risked physical harm if I did not kill the animal; b) I wanted to eat the animal's meat and therefore I killed it. Other than those two reasons, no in my view, animals should never be hunted. One of the things that strikes me as odd is that the very same people who are troubled by abortion and would likely outlaw it if they could, have no problem hunting animals/ birds for the sake of sport. I, on the other hand, am deeply troubled by abortion AND by the killing of animals for sport because fundamentally, I believe that aborted babies and animals that are killed in a wanton manner are also God's children and we need to respect the sanctity of life in all its forms whenever and wherever possible. So to directly answer your question, if the lion/ bear/ mountain lion is not threatening me or my companions and I am not killing it to eat its meat, I would never want these animals to be hunted.