A second report of an illegal lion killing in Zimbabwe has sparked the suspension of hunting in the area where the animals were shot with bow-and-arrow and another barrage of worldwide condemnation, this time for a Murrysville doctor who has hunted big-game around the world for years.
The Oakland office of Jan C. Seski, the gynecological cancer specialist being investigated in connection with an illegal lion killing in April outside Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, was closed Monday.
Dr. Seski, 68, is best known in Pittsburgh for his work in so-called bloodless surgery.
Officials said he used a bow and arrow to kill a lion on private land near the Zimbabwe national park, in a case similar to that of Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer, who killed a well-known lion named Cecil in Zimbabwe in July. Dr. Seski has not been charged with any crime.
A recording at Dr. Seski’s medical offices on Fifth Avenue said the practice was closed, and neither he nor his partner in the practice, Ekaterina Yatsuba, answered phone calls.
As founder of Allegheny Health Network’s Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery, Dr. Seski has worked for years on limiting the amount of blood loss during surgery, using techniques ranging from cauterizing and clamping blood vessels during operations to recycling blood a patient loses during a procedure.
In a statement released Monday, AHN officials said that Dr. Seski “is an independent physician not employed by Allegheny Health Network who has provided care to gynecologic cancer patients at hospitals throughout the Pittsburgh region for decades and who has been a leader in the field of bloodless medicine. We expect that Dr. Seski will continue to care for his patients as he attends to personal matters related to his recent hunting expedition in Africa. We understand that concerns have been raised about Dr. Seski’s activities in Africa, appreciate the sensitivities of those issues and will continue to monitor the situation appropriately.”
Leonard Ncube, a journalist covering the recent lion killings in Zimbabwe for the The Chronicle, a daily newspaper there, said Monday that it is not clear whether Zimbabwean officials have talked to Dr. Seski or whether he knew that the hunt might have been illegal. Under the country’s rules, he said, groups of landowners are given quotas for lion hunting, but it appears that the landowner involved in Dr. Seski’s case, Headman Sibanda, did not have such a quota.
Mr. Sibanda is accused of “breaching hunting regulations in that he hunted without a quota and permit at his Railway Farm 31 and is also the owner of Nyala Safaris which conducted the hunt,” according to a statement from the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.
Mr. Sibanda said that the proper paperwork was in place for the lion hunt by his client, Dr. Seski.
"He conducted his hunt in good faith and now he is being treated as if he is some criminal," Mr. Sibanda said from his safari area near Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park. "He is an honest man who came into this country to give us business. He doesn't deserve all this attention and harassment. He should be allowed to have a good night's sleep because his conscience should be clear. Everything was done aboveboard."
The Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said that Sibanda had no permit to hunt lions on his land and that an investigation was underway.
Zimbabwean regulations also require foreign hunters to work through a locally based hunter to get permits for any hunt, but the local hunter involved in Dr. Seski’s venture has not yet been identified.
The case of Mr. Palmer involved a famous lion known as Cecil, which was killed in July. In that case, the Chronicle’s Mr. Ncube said, hunters used animal bait to lure Cecil from protected lands onto private property, where Mr. Palmer allegedly wounded him with a bow and arrow. The lion was then tracked for another 40 hours, he said, before Mr. Palmer shot the animal to death.
Zimbabwean authorities have said that the landowner in that case, Honest Ndlovu, also did not have a legal quota for lion killing, Mr. Ncube said, and Mr. Palmer reportedly paid a professional hunter based in Zimbabwe, Theo Bronkhorst, $55,000 for the hunt. Mr. Bronkhorst faces a court hearing Wednesday for failing to prevent an illegal hunt, and authorities have talked about seeking extradition of Mr. Palmer to Zimbabwe.
The United States has had an extradition agreement with Zimbabwe since 2000. Extradition requests are ordinarily submitted by the embassy of the country making the request to the Department of State, which reviews and forwards them to the Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs, according to the Department of Justice.
Former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman said he thinks extradition is a real possibility in the case of Mr. Palmer where establishing probable cause that a crime was committed seems more certain.
"This is neither a trumped-up nor a trivial crime. It's one that implicates the sovereign interests of Zimbabwe, and U.S. decision-makers will want American sovereign interests to be weighed in the balance when the shoe is on the other foot. That's what extradition treaties are all about," Mr. Litman said. "If I was him, I'd be worried, and if I was his friend, I'd tell him to get a good lawyer with state department experience."
In response to the killings, the government of Zimbabwe announced that the “hunting of lions, leopards and elephants in areas outside of Hwange National Park has been suspended. Government is also directing all those currently in the field to stop their hunting activities and withdraw.”
The cases have led to renewed calls for stricter regulations on trophy hunting.
More than 560 wild lions are killed every year in Africa by “international trophy hunters” and “up to 62 percent of trophies from these kills are imported into the United States,” according to Born Free USA and the Born Free Foundation in the United Kingdom.
Lions are not an endangered species, but there are regulations and limits on their hunting in Zimbabwe and other countries where they are hunted.
The number of lions in Africa has decreased by more than 50 percent — from 75,800 in 1980 to about 30,000 now, said Adam M. Roberts, CEO of both Born Free organizations. Since 2011 Born Free has petitioned U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the African lion as endangered, but that has not happened.
The Born Free organizations have asked the U.S. government and the European Union to “take urgent steps” to end the import of lion trophies into their countries. The organizations have also called for an international moratorium on lion hunting.
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, announced he will introduce legislation titled “Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large (CECIL) Animal Trophies,” which would extend prohibitions on importing trophies from animals killed abroad.
On Monday the Humane Society of the United States called on major airlines to follow the lead of Delta, whose officials announced a ban on transporting the “trophies” of “the Africa Big Five” -- lions, elephants, rhinos, leopards and buffalo.
“Trophy hunting is no sport. It is merely a disguise for killing to massage an ego,” said Will Travers, president of Born Free. His parents, Bill Travers and Virginia McKeena, starred in the 1966 movie “Born Free”, quit their acting careers and became instrumental in the founding of the Born Free conservation organizations.
While a 21-day lion hunt can cost the hunting party $20,000 to $70,000, Mr. Roberts said, as little as 3 percent of the revenue ’trickles down’ to the people of Zimbabwe.
In announcing the suspension of hunting, the Zimbabwe government said it was aware of the financial implications and announced a fund that ”well-wishers can deposit the funds into.“
The Associated Press contributed. Post-Gazette staff writers Andrew Goldstein, Paula Reed Ward and Linda Wilson Fuoco contributed.
First Published: August 4, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
