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Walt Disney’s got a lot to answer for.I blame Bambi and all the anthropomorphic drivel that followed, like the Lion King.That unfortunate part of the culture, more than anything else, seems to “inform” the view of nature held by effete urbanites who rarely venture out of doors.So, let me weigh in on the Cecil the Lion controversy.It was just another animal — and the outrage generated by its death is unreasoned, sentimental nonsense.People who claim to “love” animals more than people are emotionally damaged individuals incapable of weathering the difficulty required in a real relationship with something that can talk...

Until 2000 Zimbabwe had a successful wildlife-management program, with many big-game animals flourishing. But by 2003, a staggering 80% of the animals that had lived on Zimbabwean safari camps (which employed firm quotas to regulate animal population sizes) had died. By 2007, there were only 14 private game farms in the country, compared with 620 prior to the land seizures of 2000, according to a National Geographic report. With the protection of private game reserves nearly nonexistent, once abundant wildlife began dying off, hunted by desperate farmers with no other options for sustenance. Despite the passing of harsher laws for...

The cubs fathered by Cecil the lion are being protected by his brother amid fears they will be killed by a male rival, researchers said today. The much-loved lion was killed by American dentist Walter Palmer earlier this month, sparking outrage around the world. After his death, there were fears his cubs would be killed by the next lion in the hierarchy so he could father his own offspring with the females in the pride. But a team at Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Unit, which had been studying Cecil before he was shot dead, said the lion's brother had stepped...

As social media exploded with outrage this week at the killing of Cecil the lion, the untimely passing of the celebrated predator at the hands of an American dentist went largely unnoticed in the animal's native Zimbabwe. "What lion?" acting information minister Prisca Mupfumira asked in response to a request for comment about Cecil, who was at that moment topping global news bulletins and generating reams of abuse for his killer on websites in the United States and Europe. "Are you saying that all this noise is about a dead lion? Lions are killed all the time in this country,"...

As outrage grows over the killing of Cecil the lion, Zimbabwe has called on the United States to extradite the American dentist who shot the prized big cat. Zimbabwe has started extradition proceedings and hopes the United States will cooperate, said Oppah Muchinguri, the African nation's environment minister. Walter Palmer "had a well-orchestrated agenda which would tarnish the image of Zimbabwe and further strain the relationship between Zimbabwe and the USA," Muchinguri said. Palmer, his professional hunter guide, and the owner of the land where the hunt took place are accused of an illegal hunt under the country's Parks and...

Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Dan Ashe announced that his agency has opened an investigation of the "tragic killing" of Cecil the lion by American dentist Walter Palmer. Cecil was a major attraction at the Hwange National Park in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe. Palmer reportedly paid some locals $50,000 to lure the lion outside the park. Palmer then killed the lion with an arrow. Ashe characterized the killing as "a senseless act of cruelty against an innocent animal. It has shocked the world in a way that no other act has in recent memory. It is imperative that...

Attention Cecil The Lion Fans: Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe Allegedly Ate A Baby Elephant Outraged animal lovers and conservationists petitioning the White House to extradite big-game hunter Walter Palmer to Zimbabwe for killing Cecil the lion may be unaware the the country’s president, Robert Mugabe, reportedly ate baby elephant meat during his lavish 91st birthday party in late February. A deceased lion was also allegedly involved in those festivities, a bash that cost about $1 million and was staged at a luxury resort with thousands of party guests in attendance. “Held a week after his birthday, the celebrations were described...

The Obama administration is moving to investigate the death of Cecil The Lion, in reaction to the online uproar over the news that the huge African cat was killed by an American dentist.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — While the death of a protected lion in Zimbabwe has caused outrage in the United States — much of it centered on the Minnesota dentist who killed the animal — most in Zimbabwe expressed a degree of bafflement over the concern. The discovery that Cecil, the star of Zimbabwe national park had been lured out and killed by American bow hunter Walter James Palmer has resulted in online anger and protests at his dental clinic. Outside Zimbabwe's environmental and activist circles, however, the reaction been muted. "It's so cruel, but I don't understand the whole fuss,...

The meaning of an individual animal Among the reasons not to feel outraged about the killing of Cecil the lion are these two: he had a human name and he was a well-known tourist attraction. I say ‘tourist attraction’ instead of 'beloved lion’ because that hackneyed phrase seems to me a concept empty of meaning. How can a lion be wild and be 'beloved’ by people who saw him once from a safari jeep? You don’t earn the right to 'love’ a lion that way. Cecil was a wild lion who was habituated to humans, collared for a biology study,...

The Internet has been set ablaze by news that a U.S. dentist on safari shot and killed Zimbabwe’s Cecil the lion, apparently a beloved figure in that African country.Already more than 800,000 people have signed an online petition demanding “justice” for Cecil, but how well-known was Cecil before his death? The Daily Caller News Foundation found that Cecil’s Wikipedia page had only been created July 29, 2015 — after news of Cecil’s death had been reported in the news.According to Wikipedia’s edit history, an editor “created [the] article with material from Hwange National Park.” Hwange is the national park where...

...Animal Rights Groups Are Desperate to Cover Up Both social media and the progressive mainstream media have been in an uproar over the past few days about the death of “Cecil,” a 13-year-old lion in Zimbabwe. Cecil was killed in an organized licensed hunt by a big game hunter, Minnesota dentist Dr. Walter Palmer, who has now gone into hiding after receiving numerous death threats from outraged animal rights activists. However, it would appear that the outrage surrounding the death of Cecil is what is commonly known as a “First World Problem,” as residents of Zimbabwe were mostly unaware of,...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the agency is investigating the killing of Cecil the Lion, saying it will “go where facts lead.” The agency made the announcement via Twitter Thursday. Also Thursday, the Eden Prairie Police Department said that, while they will be stepping up neighborhood monitoring, they will not be providing personal protection for the dentist who killed a protected lion in Zimbabwe. “Because of the increased traffic in the neighborhood of Walter Palmer’s residence, the Eden Prairie Police Department is monitoring the neighborhood to ensure the safety and security of the residents and their property,”...

U.S. wildlife agencies will assist Zimbabwean authorities in their investigation into the killing of the iconic African lion, Cecil, according to a published report. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports dentist Walter Palmer has not been charged in Zimbabwe, though his guide and outfitter have. Palmer, who lives in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie and practices in nearby Bloomington, said late Tuesday he regretted the animal’s death, but thought he was acting legally.

Human rights lawyers in Zimbabwe have filed a court application seeking the release of an activist they suspect was abducted by state agents. The lawyers said Tuesday that Itai Dzamara, leader of a movement called Occupy Africa Unity Square, has been missing since Monday morning and that his family and associates have no idea of the activist's whereabouts.

As part of the celebrations for his 91st birthday next Saturday, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will be served a feast featuring five impala, two buffalo, two elephants, two sables, and one lion. According to a report in Zimbabwe's The Chronicle, the menagerie was donated by Tendai Musasa, owner of the prominent Woodlands Farm near the Elephant Hills Resort at Victoria Falls, where the 20,000-person shindig will take place. While you'd think that eating elephants and lions, icons of wildlife conservation, would be illegal, it turns out it's not—neither under Zimbabwean nor international law. As of 1997, elephant populations in Botswana,...

Dr Walter Palmer is a dentist in the human happiness business. His website, at the River Bluff Dental clinic in Minnesota, says he ‘strives to create dazzling smiles’. For 27 years this self-anointed kindly man has showered his patients with extraordinary care and comfort, ensuring they leave his surgery immeasurably more self-confident than when they entered. His official photograph on the website exudes almost Saintly virtue; Palmer’s own gleaming dentures shining beatifically beneath his warm, bespectacled, twinkling eyes. But there’s another side to Dr Palmer. A side he alludes to right at the very end of a Q&A on the...

Cecil, a 13-year-old lion, wandered out of his sanctuary in a national park in Zimbabwe this month, following the scent of a potential snack. At the other end of Cecil’s search was a lure, placed there by hunters who, conservationists say, wanted their prey to cross into unprotected territory so they could kill him. Cecil, well known to those who visited the Hwange National Park in western Zimbabwe for his jet black mane, was beheaded, according to conservation officials. His corpse was left to rot in the sun. Zimbabwean officials said that Dr. Walter J. Palmer, an American hunter known...

Cecil the lion is dead, killed illegally in Zimbabwe, authorities allege, by a foreign hunter or hunters who paid about $55,000 for the privilege.

An American dentist has been accused of killing a well-known lion named Cecil in Zimbabwe earlier this month, the chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (WCTF) confirmed. The Zimbabwe tourism authority named the man accused of killing Cecil as Walter Palmer, a Minnesota dentist and avid big-game hunter. “#WalterJamesPalmer was the man who killed #CecilTheLion. This was an #illegalhunt,” the authority posted on Twitter. The Associated Press reported that Zimbabwean conservationists had accused an American of paying $50,000 to kill the lion. The American “shot the lion with a bow and arrow." ... Rodrigues told the Star that the...