Cecil the Lion Is Becoming a Beanie Baby—and It's for a Good Cause

RIP, little guy.

By Seija Rankin Aug 04, 2015 6:43 PMTags
Cecil the Lion Beanie BabyTy Inc

There isn't a thing anyone can do that will bring back Cecil the Lion after his brutal killing at the hands of hunters last week. Sure, people can yell and scream and try to put the a--hole dentist who shot him out of business, but in the end that's not going to do any real good for Cecil or his lion brethren. 

But Ty Warner Company is trying to change that. You remember TY, right? They're the makers of the beanie baby, a.k.a. the company that took all of your hard-earned allowance and babysitting money for all of your elementary school years. (It was worth it, though, wasn't it?).

The stuffed animal makers just announced that they'll be memorializing Cecil the Lion in fabric forever—he's getting his very own beanie baby.

And what's even better, the profits of the toy will go directly to helping animals in his memory. According to a press release, 100% of the profits from the beanie baby's sale will go to the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit of the University of Oxford, in England. The WildCRU's mission is to find practical solutions to conservation problems through scientific research, and as part of that work they're currently running one of the longest-standing lion studies in Africa. 

"Hopefully, this special Beanie Baby will raise awareness for animal conservation and give comfort to all saddened by the loss of Cecil," Ty Warner himself said in the press release.

If that isn't a good enough excuse to get back into your beanie baby habit, we don't know what is. After all, the limited edition Princess Diana bear you secretly keep at the back of your closet is probably lonely.