Vale " Cecil " !

There has been a world wide eruption of anger at news of an aged lion named "Cecil " being killed by a hunter in Hwange National park in Zimbabwe.  It is the manner of the killing that has led to a petition in the United States collecting 159,000 signatures in a matter of days, demanding that the hunter be arrested and deported to Zimbabwe to face charges.

Cecil was the patriarch of a pride of lions, all of whom were protected by law and were viewed by thousands of visitors who come to see the big cats in their natural surroundings.   He was killed by a wealthy American dentist who owned a string of dental surgeries - and has a past history of illegal big game hunting, including the death of a protected black bear in the United States.

It seems that Walter Palmer coerced a Zimbabwe guide to use bait to entice Cecil to go outside the park boundaries, where he was shot with a bow and arrow.   This wounded lion laid low and forty hours later the dentist and his guide tracked him down - and finished the killing with a bullet from a gun.

Palmer is now in hiding.  Angry protesters have demonstrated outside his dental surgeries and under American law any petition that gathers in excess of a hundred thousand signatures in under thirty days of the reason for it's collection of names - requires a government response.

We are fast losing the war against the decimation of what many consider "game animals " in the wild.  Elephants are killed for their ivory tusks.  The rhino attracts predators keen to remove it's "horn " which brings astronomical amounts in the Middle East and any part of a Tiger will bring big money from the trade in Chinese traditional medicine.

Then there are the "trophy hunters " !   They seem to have no real interest in the carcass of the animal they kill.   What they seek is a photograph of themselves posing with a gun over the body of whatever they have executed - as a demonstration of their power over nature.

How America handles the issue this petition raises will be interesting.  Basically, it demands that a wealthy white American be handed over to the legal system in a black African country that is undemocratic and well known to have a "hell hole "" prison system.   That will surely incite the white supremacist movement within America to protest and will probably involve the powerful NRA - although Cecil was initially shot with an arrow - his demise was finally caused with a gun.

Of course, finding Walter Palmer will be the first issue to be faced.  Wealth opens many doors and he may have fled America.  There are many parts of the world that lack extradition treaty arrangements with America and it would not be hard to find a bolt hole in which to wait until the fuss dies down.  It comes at a bad time, with the process of the two political, parties about to select  candidates for next year's presidential election - and should one choose to announce a standing on this issue it will immediately become roiled in politics.

It would cause less racial dissent if Palmer were to face an American court, or be extradited to Europe to face the International Court of Justice, but the law broken was Zimbabwe law and the event happened on Zimbabwe soil. We are still waiting for a response from that country.

A lot of exotic animals will disappear from the face of the earth unless we put in place laws with teeth  to protect them.  It is bad enough that some native people are predators simply because that is the only way they can feed their families, but when rich people from wealthy countries become executioners for sheer sport - that will only stop when the punishment fits the crime.

If Walter Palmer gets to serve his sentence in a squalid Zimbabwe prison it will send a resonant message to those tempted to use their money to coerce others to grant their wishes to slaughter protected animals.    It would be unfair to give him the protection that Cecil was entitled to receive in his sanctuary - and which was ignored  !