Killer of Cecil the lion should be extradited, Zimbabwe says

[IceWizard]

Fri Jul 31, 2015 5:15am EDT

HARARE (Reuters) -
The American dentist who killed Cecil the lion a month ago in Zimbabwe paid for an illegal hunt and should be extradited to the southern African nation to face justice, environment minister Oppah Muchinguri said on Friday.

In a news conference, Muchinguri referred to
55-year-old Walter Palmer as a "foreign
poacher" and said she understood the
Prosecutor General had started the process to
have him extradited from the United States.

"We are appealing to the responsible authorities for his extradition to Zimbabwe so that he can be held accountable for his illegal action," she said.

Palmer has admitted killing the 13-year-old
predator, a favorite with foreign tourists and the subject of an Oxford University study, but said he had hired professional guides and believed all the necessary hunting permits were in order.

Muchinguri also said Palmer's use of a bow and arrow to kill the lion, who is said to have been lured out of Hwange National Park with bait before being shot, was in contravention of
Zimbabwean hunting regulations.

Palmer, a life-long big game hunter, managed to return to the United States before the authorities were aware of the controversy around Cecil's death.

"It was too late to apprehend the foreign
poacher because he had already absconded to his country of origin," Muchinguri said.

The killing has sparked social media outrage
against Palmer in the United States. The White
House said on Thursday it would review a public petition of more than 100,000 signatures to have him extradited.


(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Writing by
TJ Strydom; Editing by Ed Cropley)

**Opinion**
I think they do need to send his butt back to where this horrible crime was commited ... Maybe he did think he was all "legal", that's for the courts to decide. The killing of animals that are in protected zones are by definition, protected.