Cecil the lion's killer revealed as American dentist

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Has anybody remarked yet that “the hunter … has become the hunted”?

Ironic, yes?
 
From The Guardian:
For many it would be a horrifying sight, but when Dan Tichenor draws his bow and aims an arrow at an animal in the wild he feels an affinity with humanity’s ancestors and the age-old contest between hunter and hunted.
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Humans evolved to be predators and there is no shame in perpetuating that instinct, he said. “It’s not just about observing the natural environment but being part of it. It brings us back to our roots as homo sapiens. This is how we survived through all our history.”
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Over the years Tichenor, a leading hunter in California, has killed an impala and warthog in South Africa – and brought their skulls home – and hunted dozens of bears and mountain lions in the United States. “I can’t think of a more natural inclination.”
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That is, to put it mildly, a controversial statement. The killing of one of Africa’s most famous lions by an American dentist has triggered international uproar. There are mounting calls to prosecute Walter Palmer and to ban the import of game trophies.
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Palmer, who runs a dental practice in Minnesota and hunts big game in his spare time, has gone into hiding since the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force charity earlier this week identified him as the slayer of Cecil, a 13-year-old protected lion who drew visitors to Hwange national park and was part of an Oxford University research project.
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theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/30/cecil-the-lion-outcry-hunters
 
I still find the behavior of Facebookers and others who call for his death far more reprehensible than a man who enjoys hunting (which activity arguably made our ancestors modern human) and got caught up in a regulatory violation his guides should have prevented.

ICXC NIKA
 
For those of you that remember Steve Martin singing the dentist song in the Little Shop of Horrors:

When I was young and just a bad little kid
My momma noticed funny things I did
Like shootin’ puppies with a B B gun

I’d poison guppies, and when I was done
I’d find a ***** cat and bash its head
That’s when my momma said

(What did she say?)
She said “My boy, I think someday
You’ll find a way to make your natural tendencies pay”

You’ll be a dentist
(Be a dentist)
You have a talent for causing things pain
(Pain)
Son, be a dentist
(Son, be a dentist)
People will pay you to be inhumane
(Inhumane)

Songwriters
Menken Alan; Ashman Howard Elliott; Menken Alan Irwin

You can find a clip in Youtube
 
GEddie said:
I still find the behavior of Facebookers and others who call for his death far more reprehensible than a man who enjoys hunting (which activity arguably made our ancestors modern human) and got caught up in a regulatory violation his guides should have prevented.

ICXC NIKA
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I find it pretty gruesome that he needed to decapitate and skin the animal in order to keep his ‘trophy.’ I’m not anti-hunting per se but I think it ought to be limited to animals we can eat (and/or are pests such as snakes) and which are present in enough numbers that culling them is actually beneficial for them and us. Certainly not endangered animals (lions are not but they may be threatened.) Hunting good, trophy hunting of rare or endangered animals, bad.

I wouldn’t call for his death but he should be made to pay if he broke the law. The fact that he bribed someone $50,000 suggests that what he did wasn’t strictly legal.
 
DrTaffy said:
I won’t say ‘nothing’, but it does not exonerate him. When you pick up a lethal weapon, you should take full responsibility. Likewise when you kill a member of an endangered species. You cannot blame the guide or mommy or daddy. You pulled the trigger.

If you choose to hunt with something like a bow, you are responsible for making it a clean kill, and if you can pay £50000 for the privilege you can pay a little more for someone with a rifle to clean up your mess if you miss.

This man has brought disgrace on the USA and the hunting community.
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I agree.

He demonstrates the “me” culture which the international community views in Americans. It’s shameful.

There is normal and entirely acceptable hunting and then there is trophy hunting for endangered animals to make yourself feel more virile.
 
stinkcat_14 said:
I wouldn’t say that his life is being maliciously ruined. He is not losing anything that he is legitimately entitled to. His patients who are abandoning him never owed him anything in the first place. He took a risk, he lost big time. This is a perfectly just outcome because he is not owed anything by anyone in the first place. So a just outcome can in no way be malicious.
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Yes, I agree. I would be so horrified if this man were my dentist. I would never go near him again. (Makes you wonder what your dentist may be up to, God forbid.)

But there is a not really surprising but unfortunate fanaticism building out there that discredits people who support ethical treatment of animals (which I do; I would hope most people do). It’s ok to passionately embrace compassion for animals, just don’t bring your own problems to the table and take them out in the name of the cause. Any emotional controversy involving violence will do this.

In spite of the fanatics, I still have very little sympathy for this man. I feel he disgraces our country and for that matter humanity. Wonder what the lion when through in his last moments being killed by a fanatic for no reason? The fanatics and the dentist are ironically peas in the same pod, IMHO. (doesn’t sound like our big game hunting dentist likes being hunted, huh? :cool: not quite so much fun as inducing death) And, no, I don’t celebrate this pointless, vicious killing of an innocent animal as natural or primal. Vomiting is natural and primal too. So is nuclear war. So is incontinence.

That is why we have grace - to help us climb out of the primal and into the spirit - death to life. Man of spirit; man of flesh. We can do better than this. This is why Jesus died on the cross. Live and let live. No reason Cecil and the dentist can’t both live in this world.
 
tomarin said:
I wouldn’t call for his death but he should be made to pay if he broke the law. The fact that he bribed someone $50,000 suggests that what he did wasn’t strictly legal.
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Bribed someone?

Where did you get that?

Big game hunts cost a lot of money. $50,000 isn’t out of the ballpark of what you would pay to kill a lion.

But if you have knowledge that this money was in fact a bribe, I would love to see a link to the information.
 
Mike Gallagher’s show brought up the very interesting point this morning that, gee, Lions are already hunted for sport legally in Zimbabwe; also other parts of Africa, what about all of those other lions?? Of course, whatever rare animal or not so rare (Canadian Geese for example), should be respected and not killed just for sporting selfish purposes. All this at the least.

Sidenote: I mentioned the Grey Squirrels earlier, they are actually called the “chicken of the forest” and people do eat them. They can even be found in stores in England to take home and eat.
 
Path_Finder said:
Mike Gallagher’s show brought up the very interesting point this morning that, gee, Lions are already hunted for sport legally in Zimbabwe; also other parts of Africa, what about all of those other lions?? Of course, whatever rare animal or not so rare (Canadian Geese for example), should be respected and not killed just for sporting selfish purposes. All this at the least.

Sidenote: I mentioned the Grey Squirrels earlier, they are actually called the “chicken of the forest” and people do eat them. They can even be found in stores in England to take home and eat.
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With any luck this is the Planned Parenthood moment for big game hunting…😉 IMHO. Take a close look. Does this reflect your values? Is this us at our best? Only if we are savages who kill beyond needing food. (and yes I know that we are but it ain’t coming from above)
 
tomarin said:
I wouldn’t call for his death but he should be made to pay if he broke the law. The fact that he bribed someone $50,000 suggests that what he did wasn’t strictly legal.
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:eek: This is a charge that I have not seen except here. I have heard that he paid this amount for the hunt but not as a bribe.
 
FollowChrist34 said:
With any luck this is the Planned Parenthood moment for big game hunting…😉 IMHO. Take a close look. Does this reflect your values? Is this us at our best? Only if we are savages who kill beyond needing food. (and yes I know that we are but it ain’t coming from above)
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I have pointed out before that culling is necessary to maintain the health of the animals.
 
adrift said:
:eek: This is a charge that I have not seen except here. I have heard that he paid this amount for the hunt but not as a bribe.
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Every news report I’ve seen described it as a bribe. Here’s an article from the Daily Mail saying he may be charged with bribery and poaching.
 
tomarin said:
Every news report I’ve seen described it as a bribe. Here’s an article from the Daily Mail saying he may be charged with bribery and poaching.
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From your link
According to The Telegraph, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are looking at the complaint made by Democrat congresswoman Betty McCollum.
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She asked the officials to examine whether the dentist - who has received death threats since he was named as Cecil’s killer - broke laws in America relating to conspiracy, bribing of foreign officials, as well as participating in the illegal hunting of a protected species.
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Congresswoman McCollum told the paper that Dr Palmer could face prosecution. Zimbabwe police have said they are looking for him.
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Basically there was a complaint by a congresswoman. SHE wants him charged with bribery. So far, I haven’t read anything that show evidence of bribery. And they are going to find it difficult to prove that it was a bribe, since every hunter that travels there pays crazy prices to hunt.
 
I’m not going to defend Walter Palmer, but this does show how seriously out of whack America’s moral compass is.

If half of the moral outrage being directed at this dentist were directed at Planned Parenthood, PP would be forced to close up shop today.
 
maryjk said:
From your link

Basically there was a complaint by a congresswoman. SHE wants him charged with bribery. So far, I haven’t read anything that show evidence of bribery. And they are going to find it difficult to prove that it was a bribe, since every hunter that travels there pays crazy prices to hunt.
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How about the Independent? "Authorities in Zimbabwe say Walter Palmer, from Minneapolis, paid a $55,000 (£35,000) bribe to wildlife guides to allow him to shoot the lion, named Cecil, with a crossbow.
 
adrift said:
I have pointed out before that culling is necessary to maintain the health of the animals.
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This is not culling. Doing that would mean he was sure he had the proper permits and was keeping in touch with local wildlife officials. Not to mention he wouldn’t have had to lure the lion out of the park to kill it.
 
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