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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; So why should anybody care about what happened to Cecil the lion?</p><p>Garry Taroli can give you a thousand reasons.</p><p>Taroli, who will turn 61 in October, is an attorney at Rosenn Jenkins &amp; Greenwald in Wilkes-Barre. He is and always has been an animal rights activist. He has pets, but only rescued animals.</p><p>The killing of Cecil doesn&#8217;t sit right with Taroli, and he wanted to do something to express how he feels about the situation.</p><p>Cecil, you remember, was the 13-year-old lion living on a protected reserve in Zimbabwe and killed by Dr. Walter Palmer, a Wisconsin dentist, in July. Palmer paid big money to go &#8220;big game hunting&#8221; and then dropped the beloved lion in its tracks just because he could.</p><p>Taroli feels Palmer should pay for killing Cecil, not in American dollars, but by being extradited to Zimbabwe and prosecuted.</p><p>So Taroli sent off a letter to the Zimbabwe embassy in the U.S., telling the ambassador how distressed he is about what he perceives as Zimbabwe&#8217;s &#8220;wavering&#8221; on its decision to seek Palmer&#8217;s extradition.</p><p>&#8220;I have read that your country&#8217;s officials think that the extradition of Dr. Palmer may be &#8216;bad for business&#8217; because so-called big game trophy hunting brings significant revenue into your country,&#8221; Taroli wrote to the ambassador.</p><p>Taroli urged Zimbabwe officials &#8220;to consider that a decision not to offend so called big game hunters (whose numbers worldwide are relatively few) will, in turn, outrage millions &#8212; perhaps billions &#8212; of people worldwide who will thereafter view Zimbabwe in a very negative light.&#8221;</p><p>Taroli said he will not visit Zimbabwe, nor buy Zimbabwe products if officials decide not to pursue Dr. Palmer.</p><p><strong>No response</strong></p><p>He has not yet gotten a response to his letter.</p><p>Taroli claimed &#8220;the entire world is watching.&#8221; However, when Palmer returned to his dental practice in Wisconsin, there were far more media standing outside his office than animal activist protesters.</p><p>Taroli said Palmer &#8220;laid low&#8221; for a long time, during which people may have gotten &#8220;less emotional.&#8221;</p><p>Most people may have forgotten about the killing of Cecil; don&#8217;t count Taroli among them. This issue still burns in his heart and he remains vigilant in getting Palmer to justice.</p><p>He said if Palmer is extradited to Zimbabwe, he could, if convicted, get up to 15 years in prison. But instead, Palmer is back to practicing dentistry in Wisconsin.</p><p>Taroli has done and continues to do pro bono work for the local SPCA and Blue Chip Farm Animal Refuge. He said he is a practicing vegetarian who eats eggs and cheese and drinks milk. Protecting the rights of animals is more than a passing interest for Taroli &#8212; it&#8217;s his calling in life.</p><p>Taroli is not a hunter but he has held a fishing license or two over the years.</p><p>Taroli said the so-called &#8220;big game trophy hunting&#8221; that resulted in the killing of Cecil is objectionable for many reasons. Even if this hunt was legal, was it right? And if laws were broken, shouldn&#8217;t Palmer be brought to justice?</p><p>Taroli says big game hunters falsely claim they are &#8220;helping to preserve the species&#8221; by paying for licenses that go to preservation. He said the claim is &#8220;patently false&#8221; and not supported by the data. The proof, he said, is the number of lions in the wild is rapidly dwindling and nothing is being preserved.</p><p>Taroli said hunting is contrary to natural selection. He said in the wild, predators kill the old and the weak, but &#8220;hunters always kill the biggest and best of a species for their so-called trophy.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Cubs at risk</strong></p><p>Taroli said the killing of Cecil could likely affect the next generation because his six cubs could now be killed by the next male lion who takes over Cecil&#8217;s pride.</p><p>The local attorney said hunting has no place in the modern world and feels killing for personal amusement purposes is &#8220;morally bankrupt.&#8221; I can&#8217;t wait to see the responses to those claims.</p><p>Hunting for food of species in abundance will always be allowed, yet there will always be those who object to killing of animals for any reason. According to news accounts, the Palmer case was not a true hunting adventure.</p><p>Taroli said humans, members of the supposedly more intelligent species, have a duty to protect and nurture the less intelligent species &#8212; like protected lions.</p><p>So as Taroli continues his hunt for justice, we must examine what is right here. Is it OK to kill these animals for trophy, or sport, or consumption, or for thinning the herd? Or should we let natural selection handle it?</p><p>What is more disturbing here &#8212; allowing this sort of thing to continue, or the lack of response to Taroli&#8217;s letter?</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_Columnshot-1-10.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_AP_8022892721111.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">An old male lion, similar to Cecil, raises his head above the long grass in the early morning, in the savannah of the Maasai Mara, south-western Kenya. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_AP_8022892721111.jpg</photo1><caption1>An old male lion, similar to Cecil, raises his head above the long grass in the early morning, in the savannah of the Maasai Mara, south-western Kenya. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

In Focus: Wilkes-Barre attorney Garry Taroli wants justice for Cecil’s killer