Let’s just get this out of the way early: RIP Cecil. Gone too soon and all that. Sure, losing Cecil sucked, but are we over that yet? I think the lions are. It evens sounds like the dude who killed him and had death threats leveled against him has moved on. Which may be a bit too soon, considering he did decapitate an innocent animal just to get a decent Snap Story (confession: I’ve done worse for less).
Via Daily Mail:
“Far from keeping a low profile, the flash 56-year-old was seen taking a brand new Porsche Cayenne Turbo worth $120,000 for a spin. He also stopped by a swish cocktail lounge on Thursday evening to meet a female friend despite a fresh outpouring of anger on social media. The despised clinician looked relaxed and carefree as he chatted to valet staff and showed off his customized SUV before heading inside the Living Room bar at the W Hotel, Minneapolis.
‘The guys were giving his Porsche some admiring glances and Palmer was happy to lap up the attention,’ said an onlooker. ‘He was smiling away and cracking jokes.’
‘This was not the look of a man who is haunted by what he’s done. The anniversary of Cecil’s death can’t have meant that much to him.’
Palmer’s River Bluffs dental surgery remained open for business all week in spite of fresh threats from animal rights activists – one posting on Twitter: ‘Walter Palmer. Will Go Down in History As The Lowest Form Of Life. #DugYourOwnGrave.’
Another asked: ‘Why is Palmer not imprisoned 4 killing Cecil Lion if he were Muslim he would = terrorist.’
The family practice in Bloomington, Minnesota, was mobbed by protesters after Palmer paid $45,000 to slaughter 13-year-old Cecil, a prized research animal and majestic symbol of Zimbabwe’s wildlife industry. Palmer and his wife Tonette, 57, went into hiding and spent thousands on personal security but Zimbabwean officials later abandoned moves to have them extradited, saying he had not broken any laws. The father-of-two said he trusted that his local contacts guides had the required permits when they illegally shot, skinned and hacked off the regal animal’s head on July 1.
Palmer and his family split their time between a five-bedroom, $1 million house in the nearby Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie and a waterfront vacation home in Marco Island, Florida. Security remains tight at the $1.1 million Florida refuge, with CCTV cameras and no trespassing signs warning intruders away from the property, which has a safari-themed decor with exotic animal motifs on the wallpaper, drapes and upholstery. Palmer also owns a 650-acre hunting lodge in Barnesville, northern Minnesota, where neighbors say he has a barn stocked with a menagerie of exotic animal heads, including a moose, bear, walrus and a lion. His hunting has continued to rile neighbors there, with one filing a complaint that he used a pickup truck to herd deer illegally on to his 650-acre plot.”
Ok, you know what, hindsight 20/20, he probably shouldn’t be out flashing his ‘fuck you’ money a year to the day after he killed ole’ Cecil. At least wait a week. A year and a week is plenty of time for people to get over it. Also, side note, how bananas is that laundry list of animals he’s killed? How the fuck do you go walrus hunting? Do you get in the water and fight it with a spear or do you stay in a boat and just use a shotgun? Or did Palmer go the easy route and have the walrus transported to like a forest or a desert where it obviously had no way of surviving? These are the questions we need to be asking ourselves.