This isn’t Cecil, but it’s a lion and lions generally look pretty much the same. Photo via Flickr user Tambako the Jaguar.
Read: We Talked to the Woman Who Says She’s Spoken to Cecil the Lion from Beyond the Grave
Remember a few months back, when that Minnesota dentist went all Katniss Everdeen and shot Zimbabwe’s beloved lion, Cecil, with a bow and arrow while on a big game hunt? Remember how he provoked the ire of the entire internet and wound up facing down protestors at his dental practice who thought he lured the lion off protected land to kill it?
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Well, Zimbabwe officials said Monday that “all [the dentist’s] papers were in order” and therefore they will not charge him in the shooting of Cecil, according to Reuters. The officials have also dropped their extradition requests against him and said he’s welcome to visit Zimbabwe as a tourist, so long as he doesn’t murder any more of their majestic wildlife.
The dentist, Walter Palmer, paid roughly $50,000 to head out on the guided safari hunt and killed Cecil after the lion walked out of a national park and onto a farm where Palmer was allowed to hunt.
Both the guide and the farm’s landowner face criminal charges in the alleged illegal hunt, but it looks like Palmer will avoid any punishment for this one. That doesn’t really help his dental practice’s dismal Yelp page, though.
