He went and killed the lion they showed him. I doubt very much he knew that PETA revered the lion. Upon questioning, the locals and the government had no clue about it.
IIRC, it was no big deal until the Western Media got a hold of the story.
As for who said to take the shot, who baited which lion (what did the bait have an address on it? Meat is meat, bait is bait, and you can't bait a particular lion any more than you can bait a particular fish.) et cetera.
The story is a smokescreen in a teapot for other issues which were transpiring elsewhere.