United Airlines joined Delta Air Lines Inc. in banning big-game trophies as freight after the killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe triggered mounting global outrage.
"We felt it made sense to do so," Charles Hobart, a United spokesman, said Monday in disclosing the carrier's decision to prohibit transportation of elephants, rhinoceroses, leopards and water buffalo as well as lions. Hours earlier, Delta announced its new policy covering the same five animals.
The carriers spotlighted the mundane logistics that follow a visiting hunter's bagging of African wildlife: getting the head, horns or hide back home. Airlines already faced animal-rights groups' pressure to reject such cargo even before last month's killing of Cecil, 13, a star attraction for tourists at Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park.