Jack Hanna responds to killing of Cecil the Lion
This week, there’s been much attention paid to the killing of a famed and favorite lion of Zimbabwe, an animal that most of us now know as “Cecil the Lion.” Cecil was being observed by Oxford University researchers as part of a conservation study and he lived in an animal sanctuary at Hwange National Park in the western part of that country. Authorities say that men from a group paid $50,000 to take an American dentist on a safari hunt lured the lion away from the sanctuary. Dr. Walter Palmer then shot him with a bow and arrow. Cecil was later skinned and beheaded.
In the wake of the news, people have poured money into the Oxford conservation effort. At last count, more than $470,000 had been donated…enough to fund the group’s research for two years.
On the legal front, Zimbabwe is calling on the United States to extradite Dr. Palmer so that he may answer to charges in the illegal killing. Palmer has said that he believed that everything for the hunt was in order and that he was unaware that anything associated with the kill was illegal.
One of the USA’s most noted wildlife experts, our own Jack Hanna has now weighed in on the killing of Cecil the Lion.
I’ve been off the grid hiking and just learned about Cecil the lion. Words can’t describe the sadness Sue and I feel. The illegal circumstances surrounding Cecil’s death highlight the grave reality of increased wildlife poaching and trafficking. When I was born, there were 450,000 lions in Africa. When our daughters were born, there were more than 100,000. Today, there are likely less than 30,000. Sue and I met with the amazing Oxford WildCRU researchers in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park in November 2011. We learned about Cecil and the other lions that are being studied to better understand the threats facing them. Although we are horrified, the productive response to tragedy is supporting the folks who are trying to find solutions to the global wildlife crisis.
– Jack Hanna, via Facebook
(jj)
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