A U.S. dentist won’t be charged for killing a famous lion
Authorities in Zimbabwe have decided not to charge the American dentist who hunted and killed one of Africa’s most beloved lions, saying Walter Palmer went through proper channels before he set out on the savannah with a bow and arrow.
Palmer sparked international outrage over the summer after he killed the 13-year-old black-maned beauty Cecil the lion. Some called Palmer a monster. Others called him a murderer. The uproar all but forced him underground.
But a cabinet minister said Monday in Zimbabwe that Palmer had obtained the legal authority to do it.
“We approached the police and then the prosecutor general, and it turned out that Palmer came to Zimbabwe because all the papers were in order,” Environment Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said, according to Agence FrancePresse.
“The documents were there. The problem now remains internal. ... We are now going to review how we issue hunting quotas.”
A spokesman for Palmer told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he had no comment.
Palmer, a big-game hunter from Bloomington, Minn., was identified as Cecil’s killer in July. Authorities said he had paid about US$50,000 for the African safari in which he lured the lion from his home in the Hwange National Park, hunted him and killed him.
Zimbabwean authorities called for his extradition.
Palmer apologized, claiming he thought the hunt was legal. He said he had relied on his hunting guide, Theo Bronkhorst, and a local property owner, Honest Ndlovu. Bronkhorst, was charged with “failure to prevent an illegal hunt.” Ndlovu was charged for allowing the men to hunt the lion on his land without getting authorization.
The minister said this week that Ndlovu did not have a hunting quota but the district council over his land did, according to Agence France-Presse.