THE US dentist who killed Cecil the lion has said he would not knowingly have targeted an animal with a name.
Fearless tooth fixer Walter Palmer said: “When the guides said that lion was called Cecil, my heart sank. I had very specifically asked for a nameless lion.
“Or if the lion must have a name, it could ask least have been ‘Fang’ or ‘Night Shadow’, rather than sounding like an old, friendly, gay music hall entertainer.
“I feel terrible now, whereas I would otherwise had felt justifiably heroic in getting some people to point at a completely oblivious animal, firing a crossbow at it and then giving them some cash.
“It’s a complex issue that few people understand, but that’s actually conservation.”
Palmer added that he had since cancelled a planned hunting trip, and would instead be paying $50k to slash the Mona Lisa with a carving knife.
