A “Cecil the Lion” Beanie Baby is due to hit store shelves next month with proceeds going toward wildlife conservation, toy manufacturer Ty Warner has announced.
Mr. Warner, founder and chairman of of Ty Inc., the manufacturer and distributor of Beanie Babies, has pledged 100 percent of profits to WildCRU, Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, which had been monitoring Cecil with a GPS tracker since 2008, the New York Daily News reported.
“Hopefully, this special Beanie Baby will raise awareness for animal conservation and give comfort to all saddened by the loss of Cecil,” Mr. Warner said in a statement.
The lion Beanie Baby honors the popular 13-year-old lion that was illegally hunted in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park last month.
WildCRU founder David Macdonald and Andrew Loveridge set up the Hwange lion study in Zimbabwe in 1999 and it is one of the longest-running and most detailed lion conservation projects in Africa, according to a press release.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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