This is our, I should said was, Cecil the lion. Beautiful animal.

Thirteen years old. He'd been wearing a GPS collar as a part of an Oxford University research project.

They've been tracking him for years and during that time

Cecil became like a local favorite amongst the tourists. The guy who's always around.

People love to see him on the safari

until early this month when a tourist on a hunting trip shot him for sport

and of course everyone is angry and upset.

Last night I read this story.

I happened upon the story that the news report said they suspected it was a Spaniard who did it, who shot the animal.

and I have to admit when I saw it I was so relieved that it wasn't an American

I really was. I was like it's terrible but thank god it wasn't one of us for once

and then I went online this morning and learned that it turns out it was an American. It was one of us.

It was a dentist from Minnesota who paid fifty thousands dollar to shoot the lion.

According to the news, he hired a company. He flew to Zimbabwe.

Two locals took him to the national park.

They tied a dead animal to the back of the jeep to lure the lion out of the park

because it is illegal to shoot them in the park.

They called it baiting

And once they got the lion out of the park, they put a spotlight on him and then the dentist shot with a bow and arrow

but the arrow didn't kill the lion so they tracked him and forty hours later shot him with a gun

and then skinned him and took the head and left the body there.

Now, unfortunately for them.

The researchers at Oxford who are tracking Cecil were able to trace the signal and find the carcass

and the local authorities

found the hunters who they said they realized too late that they shot an animal with GPS

they tried to destroy the tracking collar but failed to do that so

umm they know it was the American hunter

who's name is Walt Palmer is currently in hiding in his closest dental office in Bloomington, Minnesota

and he emailed the statement to the news saying

“I had no idea that the lion I took was a known local favorite until the end of the hunt.”

But first of all, stop saying you took the animal.

You take aspirin. You killed the lion. You didn't take it.

and he said "to my knowledge everything about this trip was legal and properly handled

I relied on the expertise of my local profressional guides to ensure a legal hunt."

which is ok. That's say we accept at face value that he thought it was legal and properly handled

and didn't know the lion had a tracking collar or local affair.

the big question is why are you shooting a lion in the first place

I mean I am honestly curious to know why a human being would feel compelled to do that

how was that fun?

is it that difficult for you to get an erection that you need to kill things

that are stronger than...you know...

if that, if that's the case

they have a pill for that. It works great.

just stay at home and swallow it and you safe yourself a lifetime of being the most hated man in the America

who never advertised jello pudding on television.

and by the way

I'm not

I'm not against hunting if you're hunting to eat or to keep the animal population healthy

or it's part of your culture or something, that's one thing.

but if you're some a-hole dentist one who wants a lion head over the fireplace in his man cave

so his douchebag buddies can gather around it and drink starch and tell him how awesome he is

that's just vomitous. That's..

and this guy must have quite a collection of animal heads because

ah well there he is posing next to a bear he shot

in 2000 he was convicted of a felony for lying about where he killed the bear in Wisconsin

he got a year of probation for that

This is another lion he killed in 2008

umm this is a leopard.

ah this is a rhino

he killed like half of noah's ark

and

I don't get. I also don't think the answers to start a witch hunt for the guy.

some people online are saying we should skin him and feed him to the lions

or which...it's..you know...it's crazy but...

it should be handled in an lawful way

and the man who took him by the jeep should be made accountable too

but in the mean time

I think it's important to have some good come out of this disgusting tragedy.

so this is the website for the wildlife conservation research unit at Oxford

wildcru.org

these are the researchers who put the collar on Cecil in the first place

they track the animal and study them. If you want to do something

if you want to make this into a positive..you could um sorry..i'm ehhh...ok..i'm good..

ehhh make a donation. Support them. At the very least

eh.. maybe, maybe we can show the world that not all Americans are like this jackhole here.

This dentist. The top dentist.