Retired Zoo Director Wants Cecil the Lion's Killer To Face Consequences [Picture, Video]

Beloved animal expert Jack Hanna, emeritus director of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, called for Walter Palmer to be punished for killing Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe, and noted that Americans had been jailed for less severe poaching crimes.

During an interview on ABC’s This Week, Hanna explained that the world’s lion population was declining rapidly.

    
“In 1947 when I was born, there were about 450,000 lions, the mid-70s when my kids were born, there were about 100,000,” he told ABC’s Jonathan Karl. “Today, there are less than 30,000.”

Even though Hanna said that he was not there when the Minnesota dentist killed Cecil, he argued that there were four important facts that made the case particularly egregious.

He noted that the lion had been “habituated” by the researchers who had been studying him over the past 15 years: “It’s like a cow sitting in a field.”

“Number two, you drag a carcass over from the protected side of [Hwange National Park] over to the hunting side — and that was proven that they drug the carcass for the animal to be drug over to that area where he could be hunted by bow an arrow,” he continued. “Someone said the man might not have seen the collar on the lion. Well if that was a rifle, maybe that’s true — but I was there when they were collaring the lions, by the way — so therefore, you could see that collar if it was a bow and arrow.”

“Some people said they didn’t have the right permits, well that could be or not be. So, there’s so much stacked against him plus one illegal thing he had already done.”

Hanna added that he was not “anti-hunter” and that in many cases hunters helped to fund conservation efforts, but he said that conditions in Zimbabwe were “beyond abominable.”

As for Zimbabwe’s request to extradite Palmer, Hanna agreed that the hunter should face consequences for his actions — even if it resulted in him only facing punishment in the United States.

Original source:  http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/animal-expert-jack-hanna-calls-for-jail-time-for-killer-of-cecil-the-lion-something-has-to-happen-here/