Jimmy Kimmel Gets Emotional Discussing Cecil the Lion

Cecil the Lion was a beloved 13-year-old black mane lion living in a Zimbabwe national park who was illegally hunted down by an American dentist from Minnesota, Walter Palmer. Palmer apologized in a statement saying he had no idea the lion was a local favorite and that "I deeply regret that my pursuit of an activity I love and practice responsibly and legally resulted in the taking of this lion." The reaction to this news has been angry, but perhaps no person is more upset than Jimmy Kimmel, who directed his fury at Palmer on his show Tuesday, saying, "The big question is why are you shooting a lion in the first place. I mean, I'm honestly curious to know why a human being would feel compelled to do that? How is that fun?" Cecil, who had been described as "the pride of Zimbabwe" and was being researched by Oxford University, was killed in gruesome manner. Palmer, with the assistance of two hired men, lured the lion out of a national park and shot him with a bow and arrow but only managed to actually kill him 40 hours later with a gun. Kimmel said, "I'm not against hunting, if you're hunting to eat or to keep the animal population healthy or it's a part of your culture or something, that's one thing. But if you're some a-hole dentist who wants a lion head in his mancave so his douchebag buddies can gather around it and drink scotch and tell him how awesome he is, that's just vomitous." Kimmel did take time to stress that he believes Palmer, and the two men from Zimbabwe he hired, should not be harmed themselves, but rather face their punishment in a legal setting. He then looked for some silver lining in all of this, "I think it's important to have some good come out of this disgusting tragedy, so this is the website for the wildlife research conservation unit at Oxford. WildCRU.org. These are the researchers that put the collar on Cecil in the first place." Kimmel, clearly saddened by the lion's killing, got emotional at the end of the segment, "If you want to do something, if you want to make this into a positive, you can," he said before starting to tear up. He continued, "Sorry. Ok, I'm good. Make a donation, support them at the very least. Maybe we can show the world that not all Americans are like this jackhole here."