While calling for extradition of American dentist Dr. Walter Palmer, Zimbabwe has accused yet another U.S. citizen, Dr. Jan Casimir Seski of Murrysville, Pa., of illegally killing a lion in April in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park, the same park where the world's most famous lion, Cecil, was killed last month, an event that has led to a global outcry.
Seski, 68, a gynecologic oncologist who directs the Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, is also a big-game hunter, according to safari outfitters and bow-hunting sites.
Repeated efforts to contact him have yielded no response, according to the Associated Press, which called and knocked on the door at Seski's home, located among some woods outside Pittsburgh. The AP also left a message with an answering service for his medical practice, with no immediate response.
Zimbabwe's National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said Seski killed the animal - without approval - with a bow and arrow on land where it was not allowed. Headman Sibanda, a Zimbabwean landowner who runs Nyala Safaris, was arrested and is assisting police with their investigation, according to the Washington Post.
Sibanda is accused of "breaching hunting regulations in that he hunted without a quota and permit at his Railway Farm 31 and is also the owner of Nyala Safaris which conducted the hunt," a statement on the ZIMPARKS website said.
Zimbabwe National Parks spokeswoman Caroline Washaya Moyo said Seski provided his name and other identifying information for a government database when he came for the hunt.
"When hunters come into the country they fill a document stating their personal details, the amount they have paid for the hunt, the number of animals to be hunted, the species to be hunted and the area and period where that hunt is supposed to take place. The American conducted his hunt in an area where lion hunting is outlawed. The landowner who helped him with the hunt also did not have a have a quota for lion hunting," reports ABC News.
Amidst the worldwide furor, Zimbabwe has suspended the hunting of lions, leopards and elephants in the Hwange area, while also imposing stricter regulations on bow-and-arrow hunts, which can now only be approved by the head of the wildlife authority.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez,announced the CECIL Act (Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large Animal Trophies), which would expand import bans to species proposed for listing as threatened or endangered, as well as those already listed as endangered.
"The logic is that if you keep killing them, they will become endangered," Menendez spokesman Steven Sandberg said, according to the Associated Press.
