Muchinguri, a senior member of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party, described Cecil, a black-maned lion well-known to foreign tourists in the Hwange National Park – as an “iconic attraction”.
Advertisement
Dr. Walter Palmer is being hounded by animal lovers who have been protesting against him for killing “Ceil the lion” in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwean authorities called it an illegal hunt. First shot by an arrow, Cecil was later tracked, finished off with a rifle and beheaded.
Professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst, who led the hunt, appeared in court on Wednesday, but while farmer Honest Ndlovu also went to court that day, he wasn’t charged.
Backlash from the hunting trip has shut down Palmer’s practice in Minnesota and U.S. law enforcement is trying to reach him.
US government in the meantime has launched investigation in the case. And he will be bringing in no more money for conservation. Two native hunters have already to face fees of poaching as a result of they allegedly lured the lion out of the Hwange Nationwide Park, a recreation reserve.
On July 21, for instance, Los Angeles businessman Kam Wing Chan pleaded guilty to Lacey Act charges related to smuggling endangered abalone and the bladders of Totoaba fish. Palmer paid a fine for illegally killing a bear; he is on a one-man crusade to depopulate the Earth of wild animals. Florida resident Abner Schoenwetter spent six-plus years in prison for agreeing to purchase lobster tails that violated harvest regulations in Honduras.
Palmer has admitted killing the 13-year-old predator, who was fitted with a Global Positioning System collar as part of an Oxford University study, but said in a statement he had hired professional guides and believed all the necessary hunting permits were in order. “But of course there is a lot of trophy hunting which is not necessarily well managed, and that can be extremely detrimental and have a very negative impact on [animal] populations”.
“It would not be an easy case to make”, Pate said.
The U.S. embassy in Harare said it did not comment on extradition matters as a matter of policy.
There is an extradition treaty between Zimbabwe and the United States. The moderator will not enter into debate with individual contributors and the moderator’s decision is final.
Advertisement
“The illegal killing was deliberate”, she told a news conference. Online postings collected by the BuzzFeed news site included a number that sounded like threats.
