Tragic death of Cecil the Lion.

I can see both sides of the coin here, what this man did in my personal opinion is horrible and most likely he should face some kind of punishment for what he has done. On the other hand, he was in a foreign country where maybe he doesn't know the law, granted ignorance doesn't make one above the law. However he did pay fifty thousand dollars for what he believed was a legal hunt and hired two local guides whom he put faith into that they wouldn't lead him astray. I personally feel that any punishment that he faces his guides should also face as they surely should have known the law. With that said, as a hunter and animal lover, I see no reason anyone should be hunting lions or other endangered animals for any reason other then in the case of a known man killer or maybe due to overpopulation issues in a specific area when the ability to transplant those animals elsewhere doesn't exist.

My response is that we need to hand Dr. Palmer over to Zimbabwe for them to prosecute him. His story that he didn't know what his guides were doing reeks of BS, and even if he didn't - he must've seen the GPS device on the lion (which they attempted to destroy after killing Cecil). He still skinned and beheaded the lion - instead of contacting authorities. He needs to face the consequences for what he has done. USA and Zimbabwe have mutual extradition treaties...he's going to be headed on a nice 'vacation'.

I am not a hunter, but I have nothing against hunters. My grandfather was during years the president of a hunting society, and hunting was all his life, but he was hating two kind of hunters : poachers and hunters killing protected species. He could have negotiated an out-of-court settlement with them, but he never did, and always sent them to a court. For what I read, this guy has already killed a protected bear, and now he has lured out of a park where it was in security a lion to kill him... He deserves to be sent to a court for this. I hope he will not be anymore allowed to hunt until the rest of his life : it is the harshest sentence that you can impose to a hunter.

I do think some people are blowing this out of proportion. But on another he should be punished for the act he did. Most people dont go hunting down animals on their free time especially not a lion. For example here you need a licence to fish, hunt deer or so forth if not you are fined.