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ZIMBABWE HAS ABANDONED its bid to press charges against a US dentist who killed Cecil the lion, saying his papers “were in order” and that he did not know he was committing any offence.
The black-maned lion was shot dead with a powerful bow and arrow in July by US trophy hunter Walter Palmer in a hunt that provoked worldwide outrage.
Palmer paid €50,000 to shoot the lion on an expedition led by professional Zimbabwean hunter Theo Bronkhorst.
The hunt provoked a storm of criticism after it emerged that Cecil was a well-known attraction among visitors to the Hwange National Park and was wearing a tracking collar as part of an Oxford University research project.
But a Zimbabwean government minister on Monday said they would not pursue any legal proceedings against Palmer.
Environment Minister Oppah Muchinguri told reporters Palmer’s “papers were in order” when he came to Zimbabwe.
“We are now going to review how we issue hunting quotas,” Muchinguri said. ”The documents were there… The problem now remains internal.”
The dentist was welcome to return to Zimbabwe but “not for hunting”, she added.
Muchinguri had previously called for Palmer to be extradited from the US.
Palmer was hounded on social media over the killing and, after demonstrations outside his dental practice in Minnesota, went into hiding for weeks.
A legal hunt?
He later apologised for killing Cecil, a 13-year-old male renowned for his distinctive black mane.
Palmer said he believed it was a legal hunt and appeared to blame Bronkhorst for misleading him.
Muchinguri said Honest Ndlovu, the local landowner, did not have a hunting quota for a lion but that the rural district council covering the land did have one.
Bronkhorst has been charged with “failing to prevent an illegal hunt” and is due back in court on Thursday when the judge is due to decide on his application to have the case against him thrown out.
Bronkhorst has always denied any wrongdoing, saying he had obtained all the permits required to kill an elderly lion that was outside the national park boundaries.
When Palmer returned to work in September, a handful of protesters stood outside his dentist practice holding signs declaring “Stop Trophy Hunting” and “Animals Not Trophies.”
Palmer, 55, said the ordeal had affected his wife and daughter, who had been threatened on social media.
“I don’t understand that level of humanity to come after people not involved at all,” he said in an interview.
Images of the dentist grinning over dead prey from previous hunts — a limp leopard, a rhino, an elk, a big horned sheep, a cape buffalo — circulated widely on the Internet, feeding the firestorm of anger.
Radical US animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) even called for Palmer to be hanged, and animal activist Brigitte Bardot described him as a “serial killer”.
Bronkhorst, who was granted $1,000 bail in the Cecil case, was also arrested in September on separate charges of planning to smuggle 29 sable antelopes — a rare and expensive breed — into South Africa.
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I know everyone deserves a shot but if paddy went to Romania and behaved like that, he’d be sure of a good hiding from the cops or have the book flung at him in the courts for a sentence he wouldn’t forget.
In Balkan countries you do not mess with the police and jails make Mountjoy look like Disneyland.
Why brin the Balkans into it? They have nothing to do with Romania!
Why bring the Balkans into it? They have nothing to do with Romania!
The baltic weather sometimes causes brain-freeze, Romania is indeed part of the Balkan peninsula.
Ah – I hadn’t realised the border extended all the way up to the Danube. I have been to a Baltic prison however, which would make any Irish prison seem like a 5 star holiday camp.
And this is exactly why people reoffend.
Yes and no previous convictions translates as hasn’t been caught before until now. What a joke of a justice system we have, no wonder Dublin is in decay, there’s no consequence to bad behaviour.
St Vincent de Paul will prob pay the fine for him anyway
Why? To pay 3k every time?
First paragraph states that he has now paid the fine.
Further down states that at court in June he was given 6 months to pay.
6 months = december
Maybe he shouldn’t have paid the fine. He would have got “six months” but would have been let of of prison after an hour an a half.
He acted very violently in a corner shop to an innocent man doing his job. If this is his style of dealing with things that irritate him, who knows what he could do to source the €3000.
€3000 = sorrow and regret are Genuine, Judge = Joke.
Seems as though the Romanian chap has integrated well with the local population.
Back on the boat for that Romanian parasite
Not the first time of heard of that particular judge giving soft sentences
I can bet it he headbutted a member of the emergency services. The story would be calling for mandatory sentences to be introduced. Do ordinary people not count when it comes to assault.
Sounds like a real nice guy. 3000 for an attack like that involving bleeding caused by biting sounds too low. After blood testing it would have taken a long time to be sure he wasn’t infected with something.
It’s a bit like a Scottish bloke I kind of half know who’s being living here about 15 years and is always giving out the eastern European “Foreigners” he has to work with. I point the irony out to him once but for some reason he didn’t consider himself a “foreigner”.
You do know the history of population movement between Ireland and Scotland ?
I’d have a working knowledge. What’s your point?
Brits abroad call themselves expats, not migrants, or emigrants. Everyone is a foreigner to them, regardless.
I thought only white folks could be racist
Pop to any Middle Eastern country and you’ll see more racism in 1 day there than you would in 1 year in Europe. There’s no attempt to hide or discourage it over there.
Most Romanians are white, so that’s a pointless comment.
Send the yoke back to where he came from…..
Madness that the incident happened in June 2014 and only getting sorted out now. Only arrived in Ireland and was unemployed.For this type of offence he should be told to “paint and decorate” Romania and be kicked out.
Just deport him
If this was any other country with sane border laws he would be sent home after a long prison sentence.
3000 out of pocket. He will remember that the next time he is having a few scoops
Who hasn’t had a few scoops and then a good Indian meal.
Sounds like the sort who wouldn’t want a Muslim consultant.
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Absolutely disgusting! If an animal bit a person it would be put down!! This vile person should be deported back to his motherland & never again be allowed back to Ireland. Much too lenient a sentence in my opinion.
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