Cecil The Lion's Killer Will Not Face Charges

Zimbabwe has said US dentist Walter Palmer, who killed Cecil the Lion, will not be charged as his papers were in order.

 Walter Palmer posing with dead Cecil

The 55-year-old faced a global backlash after it emerged the rare black-maned lion had been killed in July during a hunt in Hwange National Park.
On Monday, Environment Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said: "We approached the police and then the Prosecutor General, and it turned out that Palmer came to Zimbabwe because all the papers were in order."


He had insisted he acted legally and did not know that Cecil was one of Zimbabwe's most treasured animals in an interview with the Associated Press news agency and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
He said: "If I had known this lion had a name and was important to the country or a study obviously I wouldn't have taken it.

"Nobody in our hunting party knew before or after the name of this lion."
Mr Palmer's practice in suburban Minneapolis was temporarily closed as anger over the big cat's death grew. It reopened in August without him, before he returned to work last month.
The dentist shot the lion, which was fitted with a GPS collar as part of Oxford University research, using an arrow from a compound bow outside the park's borders.
Cecil did not die immediately and was tracked down the following day before being killed with a second arrow.

Sky News