By now, you’ve heard about the tragic death of Cecil the Lion at the hands of a “hunter” from Minnesota. The man, a dentist named Walter Palmer, has since gone into hiding after the shameful details of the hunt came to light.
Anyway, everyone’s pretty mad at this guy, and rightfully so. He lured a wild animal out of a national park and treated it with no respect, chopping off its head and leaving the carcass rotting in the safari.
Several celebs have weighed in, most notably Jimmy Kimmel, who used his platform on ABC to promote the Oxford Research Unit, the people responsible for tracking Cecil’s whereabouts. Kimmel was joined today by the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
For those unable to see the caption:
“Stop killing big cats. Killing a lion isn’t ballsy. Going into the octagon or joining the military – that’s ballsy. Try that before you kill a lion. Protecting big cats = ballsy. I am in – join me at the link in my bio! #5forBigCats”
If there’s one person I wouldn’t want piss off, it’s Arnold Schwarzenegger. And Mike Tyson. And Ronda Rousey. Actually, there’s a whole group of people I wouldn’t want to piss off, but Arnold’s like top five.
Someone asked. Killing a lion isn't ballsy. Going into the octagon or joining the military – that's ballsy. Try that before you kill a lion.
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) July 29, 2015
It should be noted that Arnold’s message, the #5forBigCats campaign, comes just ahead of World Lion Day on August 10th. Social media users are encouraged to hashtag #5forBigCats and tag friends in the picture. If nothing else this awful tragedy gives attention to endangered lions, something we’ve been ignoring for far too long.
