Advertisement

Cecil The Lion Petition Reaches White House

The White House has said it will review a petition urging the Obama administration to send the US hunter who killed Cecil the lion to Zimbabwe to face justice.

More than 140,000 signatures have been gathered for the bid to send Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer to the African country.

It urges Secretary of State John Kerry and Attorney General Loretta Lynch to extradite the trophy hunter.

Any petition to the White House that attracts over 100,000 names within 30 days must receive an official response.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said it is up to the Justice Department to respond to an extradition order.

Zimbabwean officials have said they wish to speak to Palmer, but the US embassy said it was not aware of any extradition request.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Thursday it had opened an inquiry into the matter.

"We're investigating the killing of #CecilTheLion. Will go where facts lead," the agency said on Twitter.

"We ask Dr Palmer or his rep to contact USFWS immediately."

But Palmer, 55, who reportedly paid park guides $50,000 (£32,000) to kill the lion during a hunting trip this month, remains in hiding amid global uproar.

Protesters have gathered outside his suburban Minneapolis dental practice holding signs, including one that said: "Let the hunter be hunted!"

Amid reported death threats, police have stepped up patrols around Palmer's office, which has been temporarily closed.

Cecil's death was cited at the United Nations on Thursday as its General Assembly passed a resolution calling on all countries to step up efforts to tackle illicit wildlife poaching and trafficking.

The measure was adopted followed a two-year campaign by Germany and Gabon.

Germany's UN Ambassador Harald Braun told reporters: "Like most people in the world we are outraged at what happened to this poor lion."

Zimbabwean authorities said the men used a dead animal to lure Cecil from a protected area at Hwange National Park.

The big cat is said to have been wounded with a crossbow, tracked for 40 hours and then shot with a rifle.

The 13-year-old lion - who was being studied by Oxford University researchers - was decapitated and skinned.

Palmer has told his local newspaper, the Star Tribune, that he "deeply regrets" killing the animal.

But he said he had believed the hunt was legal, blaming his professional guides.

Two Zimbabwean men allegedly hired by Palmer have appeared in court on charges of poaching .

They face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Palmer has a poaching conviction for the 2008 killing of a black bear in western Wisconsin.

Some in Zimbabwe are miffed by the fuss over Cecil's death.

Harare resident Eunice Vhunise told the Associated Press: "We have water shortages, no electricity and no jobs - yet people are making noise about a lion?"

Zimbabwe's information minister, meanwhile, seemed clueless about the furore.

Asked about Cecil's demise, Prisca Mupfumira said: "What lion?"