CECIL*

In 2015 Cecil the lion was killed by American dentist Walter Palmer, sparking an international outcry and greater scrutiny of trophy hunting for the heads, skins, or other body parts of wild animals.

​It is said Palmer paid $54,000 to bow-hunt Cecil, the magnificent 13-year-old lion who lived in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park and was a favourite to visitors. On July 1, 2015 he hit Cecil with an arrow on a farm outside the park, a place where the lion usually went to explore. The team then tracked Cecil and shot him again 11 hours later.

​News of Cecil’s death spread instantly and thousands took to social media to denounce Palmer and support cries to ban canned hunting. Some countries reacted immediately by banning animals trophies while others tightened their laws making the imports much harder and costlier. More than 40 airlines including American Airlines, British Airways, JetBlue, Delta, and Air Canada announced or reaffirmed bans on transporting trophies from the big five species: lions, rhinos, elephants, leopards, and Cape buffalo.

​Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was in tears as he put out a plea to viewers to donate to Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (Wildcru), the research group that had installed a radio collar on Cecil and was observing him; donations poured in.

​Cecil has become a symbol and Ambassador for animals who have become victims of canned hunters and indeed to any animal cruelly hunted down purely for human entertainment.