Cecil the lion’s killer may not face charges
‘Heartbroken’ dentist plans to return to work
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Authorities seem to have cooled on pursuing the case against Minneapolis dentist Walter Palmer amid fears that extraditing the American bow hunter for killing Cecil the lion could hurt the country’s hunting business.
It has been a month since Zimbabwean Environment, Water and Climate Minister Oppah Muchinguri announced police would process paperwork to extradite Palmer for participating in a hunt authorities said was illegal.
On Monday there were no new developments in the matters, police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said in Harare.
“I still have nothing on that case,” she said.
The news comes as Palmer, 55, broke cover to tell his side of the story.
He claimed he acted legally and declared himself “heartbroken” because he had been forced to abandon his dental practice for weeks amid the international outcry and vowed to return to work Tuesday.
In his first interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune on the weekend, the hunter said he had been stunned to discover he had killed a treasured animal.
“If I had known this lion had a name and was important to the country, or a study, obviously I wouldn’t have taken it. Nobody in our hunting party knew, before or after, the name of this lion,” he said.
Cecil had been fitted with a tracking device as part of study by Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit.
Palmer said the lion was outside the national park’s borders when he hunted him.
The tracking collar had not been visible during the nighttime hunt because it was shrouded by a thick mane.
The hunter also disputed conservationists’ accounts the wounded lion wandered for 40 hours and was finished off with a gun, claiming it was tracked down the next day and killed with an arrow.
Palmer shut off several lines of inquiry about the hunt, including how much he paid — reportedly more than $50,000 US — or others he has undertaken. No videotaping or photographing of the interview was allowed.
During the 25-minute interview, the dentist gazed intensely at his questioners, often fiddling with his hands and turning occasionally to an adviser, Joe Friedberg, to field questions about the fallout and his legal situation.
He said he feels safe enough to return to work — “My staff and my patients support me and they want me back” — but declined to say where he had spent the last six weeks or describe security steps he has taken.
Pursuing Palmer without a concrete case could rattle potential big-paying customers from the United States, said a Zimbabwean government official and safari operators.
Palmer’s hosts — Theo Bronkhorst, a Zimbabwean professional hunter, and Honest Ndlovu, the owner of the land on which Cecil was killed — should have ensured the hunt was legal, said Emmanuel Fundira, chairman of the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe.
“Clients may end up thinking twice before coming to Zimbabwe if such cases are not handled carefully,” he said. “Authorities have to be sure there is a case before pushing for the extradition of these hunters.”
Hunting supports about 800,000 rural Zimbabwean families.
Rural communities surrounding national parks also cash in from the hunting business.
In 1989, Zimbabwe, with the aid of the U.S., set up the Communal Areas Management for Indigenous Resource to plow some of the money from hunting into the area.