Prosecutors seek to extradite dentist in killing of Cecil the lion
Prosecutors in Zimbabwe announced Friday that they plan to seek extradition of a Minnesota dentist who killed a protected lion during a paid hunt. Officials say Walter Palmer lured Cecil the lion out
News 12 Staff
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Aug 1, 2015, 5:40 AM
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Updated 3,196 days ago
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Prosecutors in Zimbabwe announced Friday that they plan to seek extradition of a Minnesota dentist who killed a protected lion during a paid hunt.
Officials say Walter Palmer lured Cecil the lion out of a national park before shooting him and removing a trophy from the carcass.
Palmer went into hiding after apologizing for killing Cecil, insisting that he did not know the animal was protected.
The head of the safari company that led the hunt has already been charged for the crime.
Marcella Leone, the director of LEO Zoological Conservation Center in Greenwich says lions are an endangered species and that there are less than 20,000 of them left in the wild.
Leone says luring and killing them disturbs the balance of the ecosystem.
