Small protest at office of man who killed lion

The Telegraph of London identified Palmer, 55, as the person who paid $50,000 to shoot and kill what the news outlet called the most famous creature in one of Zimbabwe’s national parks. And now it appears they have.

Zimbabwean authorities have said they are seeking Palmer on poaching charges, but Palmer says he hasn’t heard from authorities.

Following the now-viral segment, Kimmel has been busy tweeting other celebrities, including Ariana Grande and Marlee Matlin, who have taken up the cause. Zimbabwe police have said they are looking for Palmer, whose exact whereabouts were unknown.

Based on what he’s read about Dr. Palmer’s hunt and Cecil the lion’s death, Christianson doesn’t believe Palmer did anything wrong.

Bronkhorst was freed on bail Wednesday after appearing in a courtroom in Hwange, about 700 kilometers west of the capital, Harare.

More than 400,000 people have signed an online “Justice for Cecil” petition, calling on Zimbabwe’s government to stop issuing hunting permits for endangered animals. Palmer had a permit to hunt but shot the animal outside the authorized zone in 2006, then tried to pass it off as being killed elsewhere, according to court documents.

In the real world, protestors made a makeshift memorial to Cecil by placing stuffed animals outside Palmer’s dentistry practice.

The importance of the lion can be gauged by the fact that it was a participant in a study that Oxford University in Britain was conducting, and he had been outfitted with a Global Positioning System collar.

He said he wasn’t against hunting for food, or to “keep the animal population healthy or if it’s part of your culture or something”.

An American hunter and Minnesota dentist offered an apology but remains a target of criticism and scorn after admitting he killed a lion in the African nation of Zimbabwe, but said he thought it was a permitted, legal hunt.

So far two men have been arrested in Zimbabwe.

As Kimmel urged people to donate to a charity to help those researchers, he had to pause to regain his composure. The wounded cat was then tracked for 40 hours before Palmer fatally shot him with a gun, Rodrigues said. An avid big game hunter, Palmer defended the hunt as legal, and said he’d trusted his local guides. A 2011 report by the global Fund for Animal Welfare found that between 1999 and 2008, Americans brought home lion “trophies” – heads, pelts and whatnot – representing 64 percent of all African lions killed for sport during that period.

Zimbabwean hunter Bronkhorst and local land owner Honest Ndlovu are being jointly charged for illegally hunting the lion, whose cubs are likely to be killed by the lion taking over in the group’s hierarchy, according to the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force.