Hwange National Park (Photo : Brian Orfor/YouTube)
It is not just Zimbabwe's legal system that is running after lion killers. At least one airline is doing its share to protest the killing of Cecil, the lion, by banning the global shipment of some big game trophies.
CNN reports that Delta Airlines banned on Monday the shipment of lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo trophies. It would also review with appropriate government agencies and other organizations that support legal shipment of other hunting trophies, the air carrier said in a statement.
The new policy could possibly be also in response to an ongoing change.org petition, which has secured more than 395,000 signatures as of Monday afternoon, for Delta to stop the shipment of trophies of exotic animals. The petition, which started circulating in May, targets Delta as one of the largest airlines in the world and the only American carrier with direct services to South Africa.
Cecil's death sparked global rage and calls from Zimbabwe to the U.S. for the extradition to Zimbabwe of Minnesota dentist Walter James Palmer to face charges, reports Associated Press. Cecil was lured out of its habitat in Hwange National Park, injured with a bow and arrow and tracked and shot, according to conservationists. But Palmer insists that guides assured him it was legal to hunt in the park.
Besides Palmer, a Pennsylvania doctor - Jan Casimir Seski of Murrysville - is also accused of the illegal death of a lion in Zimbabwe. Seski also used a bow and arrow on the big cat even if he did not have a permit and in the national park which prohibits hunting. In connection with the killing of the lion in spring, Zimbabwe wildlife management officials have arrested Headman Sibanda, a landowner, who is now helping authorities.
Safari outfitters and bow-hunting sites identify the Pennsylvania physician as a big-game hunter. The sites have images of Seski standing beside slain beasts, including elephants. As a result of Cecil's killing, the country's authorities have suspended the hunting of lions, leopards and elephants in the entire Hwange region.
