Three U.S. airlines have banned the transport of lion, leopard, elephant, rhino or buffalo killed by trophy hunters, in the latest fallout from the killing of Zimbabwe’s Cecil the lion last month.
American Airlines said on Tuesday it would join Delta Airlines and United Airlines in banning the transport of animals known in Africa as the “big five”, coined by hunters because they are the hardest to kill on foot.
“We felt it made sense to do so,” Charles Hobart, a United spokesman, said on Monday in disclosing the carrier’s decision to prohibit transportation of elephants, rhinoceroses, leopards and water buffalo as well as lions.
Hours earlier, Delta announced its new policy covering the same five animals.
Delta Air Lines is the biggest U.S. airline by volume in the US.
The airlines said it won’t allow hunting trophies as baggage if they’re from endangered species, as worldwide outrage over the killing of Zimbabwe’s most famous lion by a Minneapolis dentist earlier this month shows no sign of abating.
The carriers spotlighted the mundane logistics that follow a visiting hunter’s bagging of African wildlife: getting the head, horns or hide back home.
Zimbabwe has called for the extradition of Palmer, who is accused of killing Cecil in an illegal hunt because he did not have a license. The 13-year-old lion was fitted with a GPS collar as part of an Oxford University study.
