In June 2015, Walter Palmer, an American dentist and recreational game hunter from Minnesota, reportedly paid US$50,000 to a professional hunter / guide, Theo Bronkhorst, to enable him to kill a lion.[ Cecil was allegedly lured out of the sanctuary where he was shot and wounded with an arrow. He was tracked, and approximately 40 hours later was killed with a rifle.[5] He was then skinned and his head was removed. When his headless skeleton was found by park investigators, his tracking collar was missing.
Zimbabwe National Parks have stated that neither Bronkhorst nor the landowner, Honest Ndlovu, on whose property Cecil was believed to have been shot, had the appropriate permit for a lion. On 31 July 2015, Agence France Presse AFP reported that the Zimbabwean hunt guide, Bronkhorst, declared: "We had obtained the permit for bow hunting, we had obtained the permit for the lion from the council." The two Zimbabweans were arrested by Zimbabwe police and accused of assisting Palmer in the killing.[24] Palmer had already returned to the United States, where he issued a statement that he had "relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt" and "deeply regret that my pursuit of an activity I love and practice responsibly and legally resulted in the taking of this lion". On 28 July, The Daily Telegraph reported that "independent sources" had "seen a copy of the relevant hunting permit".[9] In a previous incident, in which Palmer killed a bear 40 miles (64 km) from where the bear hunting permit he held would have been valid, he had offered about $20,000 for his hunting party to lie about the circumstances.] On that occasion, he was given a $2,938 fine and a year of probation.
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