Lion uproar cools
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Amid fears that extraditing an American bow hunter for killing Ceil the lion could hurt Zimbabwe’s hunting business, authorities seem to have cooled off on pursuing the case against Walter Palmer.
It has been a month since Environment, Water and Climate Minister Oppah Muchinguri said police would process paperwork to extradite Palmer for participating in a hunt that authorities here said was illegal. On Monday there were no new developments in the matters, police spokesman Charity Charamba told The Associated Press.
The National Prosecuting Authority, which is responsible for processing extradition requests, said Palmer was not on its files because the police had yet to process a docket for Palmer, a dentist from suburban Minneapolis.
In an interview with AP on Sunday in Minneapolis, Palmer said he believes he acted legally and that he was stunned to find out his hunting party had killed a treasured animal in July. Cecil was a fixture in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park and had been fitted with a GPS collar as part of Oxford University lion research.
Pursuing Palmer without a concrete case could rattle potential big-paying customers from the United States, said a Zimbabwean official.
Theo Bronkhorst, a Zimbabwean professional hunter who helped Palmer, has been charged with “failure to prevent an illegal hunt.” Honest Ndlovu, whose property is near Hwange park, faces a charge of allowing the hunt to occur on his farm without proper authority.
