Cecil’s Revenge: Lion Hunter Faces Public Wrath

[Updated] Walter J. Palmer, a Bloomington dentist, has been identified as the man responsible for killing Cecil, beloved lion, resident of Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, Oxford study subject, and the most recent focus in ongoing furor against trophy hunters.

A regular big game hunter (dig the pictures of the other hunters on the Facebook page!), Palmer reportedly paid $55,000 for a permit and the privilege of hunting Cecil, shooting him with a bow and arrow, tracking him for 40 hours, shooting, beheading and skinning him. All of those things are legal except the fact that Cecil was led out of the park and his killers attempted to destroy radio collar evidence. Now that he’s being charged with a crime, Palmer is pointing fingers at his fellow hunters and guides.

Palmer and his partners, including professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst and landowner Honest Ndlovu, are due in court this week to face poaching charges. If convicted, they face up to fifteen years in prison.

In the meantime, Palmer has faced everything from death threats to accusations of butchery on Facebook and Yelp* pages for his practice, River Bluff Dental.

Palmer has released a statement saying he had no idea Cecil was protected (as opposed to being an ordinary lion whose hide was presumably for grabs) and was ignorant the hunt was illegal, trusting his guides to ensure the kill was kosher.

I cannot fathom the fact that the hunting of elephants, elk, zebras, big cats, and similar “trophy animals” is still “legal”. I cannot describe my repulsion at someone that not only kills and hunts these animals as a hobby, but would pay tens of thousands of dollars to participate–the height of arrogant bloodlust behind it. That puzzlement doubles for the jackasses that knowingly post themselves online, beaming over their kills for the world to admire. To say this is a cowardly, senseless “hobby” would be an understatement.

I cannot imagine the grief and anger felt by researchers and conservation organizations devoted to the protection of native wildlife, who will watch species dwindle due not simply to habitat loss, but callous butchery for sport (to say nothing of the hit the wildlife tourism industry probably takes due to poaching). Decades of work, love and stewardship die with animals like Cecil.

….And yet, I have to wonder a little at the people calling for Palmer’s flaying. I pity Cecil, his mates and his cubs, who will likely die in the jaws of other male lions in the park that will kill them to induce the lioness to mate, but so too do I pity the people that love or work with Palmer, who will pay for his idiocy. I fear for his children.

I wonder who these people are, apart from their “sportsmanship”. On some level I almost pity Palmer for his amazing stupidity. He obviously didn’t think this hunting expedition would differ from the others that preceded it and had no reason to, having killed exotic game before (including at least one leopard).

What do you think, Crassholes? Does Palmer’s reported “regret” for killing Cecil and his confession that he thought the hunt was legal hold any weight? Should he have been publicly outed, or is his guilt a matter for the courts and Cecil’s protectors to deal with, without input from a global audience calling for his head? What do you think about trophy hunting, when we torture and mistreat domesticated, zoo, and livestock animals the world over, from ocean to ocean and in every country and continent?

Should trophy hunters be chastised not just for bloodshed, but for undermining the economies and national pride of countries now vested with keeping admired species and habitats thriving?

Is a person’s humanity completely dismissable if they hunt?

*Frankly, Palmer’s Yelp page is what inspired me to write the post. Infamous assholes put on blast in the blogosphere and social media are a dime a dozen, but now I finally know what it takes for the moderators of a deceptive shithole like Yelp to leave up bad reviews–angry “customers” numbering in the hundreds instead of the easily silenced dozens, and the expensive death of a magnificent beast.

[Editor update]: Watch Jimmy Kimmel’s emotional statement on his July 28th show:

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