Ty Inc. has created Cecil the Lion Beanie Baby in memory of the lion tragically killed on July 2. Ty has pledged 100 percent of the profits from sales to the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England.
“Hopefully, this special Beanie Baby will raise awareness for animal conservation and give comfort to all saddened by the loss of Cecil,” says Ty Warner, the founder and chairman of Ty Inc.
WildCRU’s work spans many species in many countries around the world. Prof. David Macdonald—who founded WildCRU at the University of Oxford in 1986—and Dr. Andrew Loveridge set up the Hwange lion study in Zimbabwe in 1999, which is one of the longest running to date.
