Cecil the Lion Mourned During Nat Geo Wild Event: "It's Our Responsibility to Do Everything We Can"

Nat Geo Wild exec VP took the stage at the TCA summer press tour to comment on the lion's murder

By Lauren Piester Jul 30, 2015 3:39 AMTags
Cecil The LionYouTube

RIP Cecil the Lion. 

Today's Nat Geo Wild presentation during the TCA summer press tour started off on a somber note as executive VP Geoff Daniels took the stage to introduce the day's panels, but first took note of one of the week's biggest and saddest stories. 

"I can't start off today without following back up on the headlines of the last 24 hours and that senseless killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe," he told the room of reporters, referring to the alleged murder of the famous lion by dentist Walter Palmer that has created outrage all over the world.

The lion's death even drove Jimmy Kimmel to tears, which you can watch below. 

Daniels also brought attention to the fact that there are only 32,000 big cats left in the wild."It's our responsibility to do everything we can do bring attention to their plight," he said.

Daniels also informed the room that the network is hard at work to try and fix the problem, or at least to bring awareness to the problem, especially in light of Cecil's death. 

"We've been involved in the Big Cats Initiative since the moment we launched five years ago," he said. "It's news like this that reminds me—and all of us—why we're here."

Nat Geo will be celebration World Lion Day on August 10 with a whole day of big cat programming, including Lion Battle Zone, Game of Lions, Killer Queen and Man vs. Lion. 

If you want to get involved, Nat Geo Wild is promoting the hashtag #5forbigcats and encouraging people to donate five dollars to help create awareness of and promote additional action on the decline of big cats in the wild.