Jimmy Kimmel Chokes Up As He Talks About Cecil The Lion
LOS ANGELES (CBS Sacramento) - During his opening monologue on Tuesday's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," the host discussed the death of Cecil the Lion.
Jimmy Kimmel told the audience about Cecil participating in a study for an Oxford University research project and spoke about him being a local favorite.
He told the story about how Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer paid $50,000, flew to Zimbabwe and hired a company that lured the animal outside of the park. The reason behind getting Cecil out the park is because it was illegal for him to shoot the animal inside of it.
Once Cecil was out of the park, they put a spotlight on him as he searched for the bait, hunting him for nearly 40 hours. Then he shot the lion, skinned him, took off his head and left his body there.
According to Kimmel, Oxford was able to trace the signal and local authorities believed the local hunters tried to get rid of the tracking collar but failed. Palmer, the American man accused by officials in Zimbabwe, has since closed his dental practice office and e-mailed a statement saying, "I had no idea the lion I took was a known local favorite until the end of the hunt."
Since the information has been released, people have gone on Yelp, leaving Palmer horrible messages. Kimmel went through a number of pictures of Palmer and all the animals he hunted. The then broke down later on in the show when he shared the website for Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford.
He said, "These are the researchers who put the collar on Cecil in the first place. They track the animals and study them. If you want to do something—if you want to make this into a positive—you can, uh...Sorry!"
