The death of an iconic Zimbabwean lion at the hands of
American dentist James Palmer has instigated an international backlash and
anti-hunting cries—as if we needed another reason to hate the dentist. However,
Palmer may not be deserving of his horrendous media attacking in the
aftermath.
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| Cecil was popular with tourists largely because he was easily-distinguishable by his black-fringed mane. Public domain photo. |
On July 30, a black-maned African Lion, nicknamed “Cecil” was
wounded by an arrow shot by safarist, James Palmer, who allegedly paid $50,000
for the trophy, according to USA Today.
Palmer was hunting with hired professional hunting guide, Theo Bronkhurst, over
bait on private land owned by Honest Ndlovu adjacent to Hwange National Park.
Upon wounding the predator, caution ruled and the party let the animal rest
over night.
On July 1, Cecil was tracked, found, and killed with a rifle
shot.
Outrage ensued.
Cecil was named after Cecil Rhodes, a British businessman
and Imperialist who founded the aptly-named Rhodesia in 1895, which became Zimbabwe
in 1980. He had long been a favorite of visitors to the national park, largely
because he was easily distinguishable by his black-fringed mane. But tourists
also note Cecil’s trust in people, often getting as close as 30 feet to
cars.
Moreover, Cecil wore a radio tracking collar, a symbol of an
ongoing research project by Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research
Unit. The 13-year-old Cecil had been under study his entire life.
So when the radio went silent, the news of Cecil’s death was
already known internationally, and hate started flowing Palmer’s way. The typically
over-the-top PETA lost no opportunity to label hunting as a “coward’s pastime,”
and called for Palmer to be “preferably hanged” if found guilty of killing
Cecil.
Now, I will entertain the outrage: if there was a living-and-breathing Smokey
the Bear, Americans would take offense if a rich Brit staked Jelly donuts
outside the boundaries of Shenandoah National Park and took Smokey’s head and
hide across the pond to be replicated.
However, while Cecil’s death made front page headlines in
five major British news outlets, and featured on BBC, Sky News, and CNN, the
incident went largely unnoticed in Zimbabwe.
Maybe that’s because Zimbabwe has yielded an average of 87
trophy lions annually in the past five years, rarely meeting a
federally-assigned quota of about 100 cats per year, according to stats
compiled by USA Today.
In fact, foreign trophy hunters are willing to pay tens of
thousands of dollars for an opportunity to take an African Lion—one of the “Big
Five” African trophy species, along with the African Elephant, Cape Buffalo,
African Leopard, and White/Black Rhinoceros, that are widely held as the most
difficult to hunt on the African continent. Approximately $20 million per
year—3.2 percent of tourism revenue--enters the Zimbabwean economy because of
trophy hunting. Many would argue it’s a
vital trade.
But because of the lion’s popularity among tourists and
researchers, legal investigation followed. According to Lion Aid, a charity
dedicated to lion conservation, in Zimbabwe, it is legal to bait lions, and to
kill lions—even collared ones. However, the animal must be taken in safari areas,
forest areas, or game ranches where a quota is in effect. Bronkhurst and Ndlovu
were promptly taken into custody for allowing the lion to be killed on Ndlovu’s
private farm where no quota exists, and could face fines up to $20,000 and up
to 10 years in jail.
Meanwhile, a White House petition to have Palmer extradited
to Zimbabwe to be tried has surmounted its threshold and should receive
executive attention. While the misfortunate Palmer is cited as stating “I had
no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favorite, was collared and part
of a study until the end of the hunt. I relied on the expertise of my local
professional guides to ensure a legal hunt.” Dr. Palmer’s fate will only be
told in time.
Still, the bigger question (at least for me) is whether or
not trophy hunts for lions should be conducted in Zimbabwe. It is well
documented that the African lion population has shrunk approximately 82 percent
over the past century, and there is no law requiring animals of a certain age
to be taken, yet hunting is still entertained. At least Cecil was, at 13, a
mature animal.
Though immoral, tens of lions are killed illegally every
year in Zimbabwe, and are rarely investigated. As a legal shooter, Palmer
should be able to rest easy. His guides, on the other hand, who should be
concerned with responsible wildlife management, have gotten what they deserve.
In all, it is clear that the very fact that “Cecil” bore a name and was the
“pet” of the Park has fueled the media bonfire that has followed his
death—which is why Farmer Brown doesn’t let his daughter name the chickens.
*Originally published in the Rural Virginian
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