The killing of the African lion anthropomorphized as “Cecil” continues to make news. cbsnews.com reports that Zimbabwe authorities are asking the U.S. to send Dr. Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist who removed Cecil from the gene pool, back to Zim to face poaching charges. Whether or not that’ll happen – the U.S. and Zimbabwe have a [so-far-unused] 15-year-old extradition treaty – remains to be seen. In the meantime, the press has been unearthing details of the now world famous hunt. Turns out that Cecil wasn’t finished off with a rifle after the first arrow failed to do the deed . . .
Palmer’s guide, Theo Bronkhorst, said the hunt went “wrong from the beginning.”
“We were never meant to hunt on the land where this lion was shot,” Bronkhorst said.
Bronkhorst said an elephant carcass was “dragged and moved into the long grass and used for bait.”
He claims Palmer shot an arrow at Cecil but wasn’t sure if the beloved lion was hit. The next morning, the injured animal was found, and Bronkhorst said Palmer finished him off with a second arrow.
The cbsnews.com update removes this lamentable story from our wheelhouse – save for the already discussed link between firearms-based big game hunting and African game conservation. We now return you to your regularly scheduled information truth about guns.