Social media is buzzing about the death of Zimbabwe’s most famous lion – Cecil – killed by Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer.
Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel cried on his show on Tuesday (July 28th), and urged people to donate to WildCRU
https://www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/wildcru
Jimmy Kimmel implored his millions of listeners in the USA to make donations to support our work on lions, and conservation more widely. We are so grateful for this and for the up-welling of support for our work worldwide.
People are telling us that they are copying our appeal to all their mailing lists and contacts – this is wonderful – thank you: for an organization that depends on philanthropy we are deeply grateful for this support – it will be a wonderful monument to Cecil the lion if we are empowered by these donation to continue and to increase our conservation work. The email deluge is overwhelming us, so we cannot reply individually, but we thank you sincerely.
Millions of people around the world have been inspired to express the value they place on lions and other wildlife – if each of them grasps this moment to make a donation to our project, however small, our capacity to work for conservation would be revolutionized. Now is the moment to help!
Thank you,
David Macdonald.
From the WildCru Website:
WildCRU welcomes support for its research activities, including the work currently undertaken in Zimbabwe. In particular support is needed to fund WildCRU’s work on the conservation of lions, including the purchase of satellite tracking collars, project vehicles and the training of young Zimbabwean conservationists.
If you wish to make a gift from within the USA, please visit the North American Office website.
https://secure.www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/UXF/onlinegiving/showGivingForm.jsp?form_id=382
KMJ’s reporter Liz Kern asked people in Fresno their thoughts.
Liz Kern: Cecil the Lion – would you know who that is?”
“Yes.”
“No”
“I saw it on Facebook post and that guy paid good money to kill it so he can skin it and kill the lion.
Liz Kern: “What do you think of it:
“Sad, definitely sad, but I don’t know too much about it.”
“I think’s absolutely horrible that someone could do that.
“Especially if the lion is bringing some sort of education to people then it’s extremely wrong as well.
“That was cruel.”
“It was a very well-to-do dentist, I hear, from Minnesota.
“Was he like a poacher?”
“That anyone can do a trophy hunt on a pet that’s a mascot for that community, it’s disgraceful.”
