Hunter who killed ‘Cecil the lion’ in Zimbabwe identified as American dentist Walter Palmer
BY
Sasha Goldstein
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Tuesday, July 28, 2015, 11:32 AM
Updated: Tuesday, July 28, 2015, 3:06 PM
A Minnesota dentist faced worldwide scorn Tuesday for his slaying of a protected Zimbabwe lion, with animal rights group attacking him as prosecutors pondered charges.
Walter Palmer, 55, faces arrest on poaching charges in the crossbow killing of the majestic lion. Two Zimbabwe locals are already in custody, facing up to 15 years in prison.
The death of 13-year-old “Cecil,” a local lion beloved by nearby residents, was not the first time that hunter Palmer drew law enforcement scrutiny for illegal hunting techniques.
In 2008, Palmer pleaded guilty to a felony charge tied to his shooting of a black bear in an unauthorized area of western Wisconsin, according to federal court documents.
Palmer, of Eden Prarie, Minn., was convicted of making false statements by lying about where the bear was shot, officials said. He was fined $3,000 and put on one year’s probation.
In the latest case, he reportedly baited, shot, skinned and beheaded the lion after the beast was lured off the protected Hwange National Park onto private land.
Walter Palmer, left, with a trophy lion he shot during a hunt in Africa.
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals issued a vitriolic statement in response to reports about Palmer’s purported pursuit of the lion.
“Hunting is a coward's pastime,” said PETA President Ingrid Newkirk.
“If, as has been reported, this dentist and his guides lured Cecil out of the park with food so as to shoot him on private property, because shooting him in the park would have been illegal, he needs to be extradited, charged, and, preferably, hanged.”
Animal lovers flooded the Yelp page for Palmer’s dental practice with pages of angry comments blasting the doctor as immoral, sick and lower than a cockroach.
“Your picture should (be) next to SCUM in the dictionary,” wrote one riled writer. “Sorry to see that there people that call themselves human — but with no heart.”
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The 55-year-old dentist has yet to respond to the allegations, saying only things had been "misreported."
brentsinclair.blogspot.co.uk
Palmer killed this 175-pound leopard with a bow and arrow.
Palmer, in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, put the blame on his local guides in Zimbabwe.
“I relied on (their) expertise ... I had no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favorite, was collared and was part of a study until the end of the end,” said the statement.
“I deeply regret that my pursuit of an activity I love and practice responsibly and legally resulted in the taking of this lion.”
Cecil wore a GPS tracking collar and was protected from hunts while living in the National Park in the Gwayi Conservancy.
Palmer allegedly paid a guide an estimated $55,000 earlier this month to help lure the beast onto private land, where he shot it with a bow and arrow.
Bryan Orford via youtube
Cecil the lion was a tourist attraction at the Hwange National Park in his own right, according to locals.
The group then stalked the animal before killing it 40 hours later with a rifle, according to the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, which first identified the dentist.
The venerable lion “never bothered anybody," Johnny Rodrigues, the head of Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force,
told The Telegraph. "He was one of the most beautiful animals to look at."
The slaying already produced charges against two Zimbabwe locals: the hunt’s organizer, Theo Bronkhorst, and Honest Trymore Ndlovu, who owned the farm where the killing took place in the first week of July.
It’s unclear if Palmer will be charged.
“Ongoing investigations to date, suggest that the killing of the lion was illegal since the land owner was not allocated a lion on his hunting quota for 2015,” the Zimbabwe Parks & Wildlife Management Authority said in a statement. “Therefore, all persons implicated in this case are due to appear in court facing poaching charges.”
brentsinclair.blogspot.co.uk
Palmer with a Roosevelt elk.
Bronkhorst, due in court Wednesday, denied the charges to The Telegraph.
"It was a magnificent, mature lion. We did not know it was well-known lion,” he told the newspaper. “I had a license for my client to shoot a lion with a bow and arrow in the area where it was shot.”
Rodrigues, in a statement, said the group spotted Cecil at night earlier this month and lured him from the park by tying a piece of meat to the back of a truck.
They later shot and killed him before trying to destroy his tracking collar — put in place by Oxford University as part of the Hwange Lion Research program.
The animal was skinned and beheaded, with its carcass left near the park’s border.
brentsinclair.blogspot.co.uk
Palmer killed a bighorn sheep after paying thousands of dollars for a highly sought-after permit.
Palmer, a North Dakota native according to an online biography, is a prolific big-game hunter who travels the world to stalk animals like the Roosevelt elk, lion, rhinoceros, leopard and Nevada bighorn sheep.
He started shooting at age 5, according to a
2009 New York Times profile of Palmer, and is “said to be capable of skewering a playing card from 100 yards with his compound bow.”
The death of Cecil the lion, a tourist attraction himself, could have long-lasting repercussions for the area’s lion population as well.
“The saddest part of all is that now that Cecil is dead, the next lion in the hierarchy, Jericho will most likely kill all Cecil's cubs so that he can insert his own bloodline into the females,” Rodrigues said in a statement. “This is standard procedure for lions.”
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