Editorial Comment: Cecil the Lion — Circus has gone too far File picture of Cecil the lion

WE commiserate with animal lovers and conservationists around the world who were outraged by the illegal killing of a male lion on the outskirts of its sanctuary in the Hwange National Park last month but we think the circus surrounding the unfortunate incident has gone too far.

The majority of Zimbabweans were not even aware of the existence of the famous lion in the country’s biggest national park but the hullabaloo torched by its killing is threatening to overshadow more pressing matters keeping them awake at night.

Cecil the Lion has overnight become a worldwide phenomenon competing for slots on prime time international television networks with the discovery of parts of missing Malaysian airline MH370, the United States presidential nominees’ race, the migrants’ menace in Britain and France and floods in India.

While Zimbabweans have generally been indifferent to the shooting to death of the “friendly lion with a beautiful black mane”, animal rights’ activists from the US to the United Kingdom have coalesced around the need to shine a spotlight on the cruelty of professional hunting. To illustrate the power of the Cecil lobby, the lion had by yesterday raised more than half a million dollars in donations for animal conservation, literally from its “grave” and some international airlines — fearing a backlash — had stopped transporting animal trophies from Africa and other parts of the world to the US.

At the weekend, an image of Cecil was projected onto the Empire State building in New York to complete its transformation from a relatively unknown lion in Hwange to something akin to a Hollywood superstar. Zimbabwe has once again been thrust into the international spotlight but this time, the country is not being demonised, instead there is a lot of sympathy for its loss of a lion ironically named after its coloniser Cecil John Rhodes.

Never mind that Zimbabweans were not even aware that one of their lions had a name and was the subject of a study by the Oxford University — of which Rhodes was an alumni — they were supposed to drop everything and plunge into national mourning. Gladly, most Zimbabweans at home and abroad have resisted the urge to wade into the frenzy of Cecil mania simply because they cannot relate to it.

The wildlife industry in Zimbabwe is a preserve of a few rich individuals with the capacity to run safari farms. Rich tourists and trophy hunters such as Walter Palmer — the US dentist who shot Cecil with a bow and arrow — are the people keeping the industry afloat because they can pay exorbitant amounts of money to hunt game. Hunting is permitted by law in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia and is an industry which sustains thousands of families. If run viably, legally and sustainably, professional hunting has the capacity to contribute to the conservation of wild animals.

In Zimbabwe, the industry is regulated by the Parks and Wildlife Authority which issues permits for hunts. The case of Cecil and another lion reportedly killed by another hunter in the Gwayi area on a farm run by Headman Sibanda are isolated incidents which should not taint the image of the entire safari industry. Authorities should therefore be careful not to throw away the baby with the bath water by aiding the international campaign to altogether ban the legal hunting of big game.

As we understand it, quotas are issued for hunts of particular game in a given area and this is done after careful and meticulous assessment of the number of animals in that locality against its carrying capacity. Problem animals which attack villagers’ livestock and crops are also hunted down by responsible authorities. Zimbabwe has an overpopulation of elephants which are a menace to villages bordering national parks.

The country recently exported some elephant cubs to Asia and periodically allows jumbo hunts to keep numbers down. Illegal hunting is not permitted in Zimbabwe and the professional hunter who assisted Palmer to kill Cecil — Theodro Bronkhorst — is being prosecuted. The country has also requested the extradition of Palmer to Zimbabwe from the US government.

In the interim, the hunting of lions, elephants and leopards outside the Hwange National Park has been suspended. Officials have also visited the Gwayi area to plug loopholes exploited by illegal hunters.

We feel the government is doing all it can to conserve the country’s wildlife and ensure that it is utilised in a sustainable manner. In the meantime, we request that the rest of the world leaves Zimbabwe alone as it allows due process in the case of the killing of Cecil.

The media frenzy surrounding the matter is unnecessary and could exert undue pressure on the courts and diminish the accused’s chances of getting a fair trial.

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